Cannonball House Today    (I am having awful trouble attaching a picture the traditional way so I have linked the homepage of the Museum itself or a visual aid)

My chosen location is the Cannonball House in Macon, Georgia. When spending time with my family in Macon this past weekend, I was reminded of Middlemarch a bit when driving down the road and seeing the extravagant mansions that contained so much history inside. After doing some digging, I decided I want to draw the comparisons between Lowick Manor and the Cannonball House. Although the two are very different in terms of style and location, they share similar history in the way that they are both beautiful but contain troubled pasts. The Cannonball House is named as a result of damage sustained during the Civil War in which a Cannonball barreled right into the side of the gorgeous, Greek Revival styled home on July 30, 1853. In fact, this is the only place in Macon that suffered any damage at this time but fortunately, no one, besides the house, was injured in the attack. Before the Union army attacked the house, it was built as a planter’s townhouse and Asa Bolt, acclaimed judge, lived there for quite some time. If you look at the back of the home, it is entirely brick on both floors and its two-story brick kitchen overlooks a garden and trees in the rear of the home. If the United Daughters of the Confederacy had not purchased the home back in 1962, the City of Macon actually planned to tear the home down and put a parking lot in its place, but luckily, the home has been saved and restored multiple times over the years due to the community’s connection to the history of the home. To this day, one can step within the gates of the historic home and explore all 1,320 square feet of it. The home is currently on the National Register of Historic Places and is currently being used as the repository for both the Founders’ Parlors of the Adelphean and Philomathean Societies. The latter is the most exciting to me because it belongs to Phi Mu, which happens to be the sorority I am involved with due to the emotional significance of it in my own life, and this particular chapter that the home honors belonged to the very first chapter in existence chartered at Wesleyan College in 1852.

The reason this reminds me of Lowick Manor in a few different ways. First, because of the descriptions surrounding the garden area of Lowick Manor and the way it contained a small park nearby as well amongst the many trees present. Additionally, because the house was described as having an “air of autumnal decline” which I feel the Cannonball House contains as well (Eliot 74); Perhaps, that is only because I caught a glimpse of the house on a cold, autumn day, but I feel the houses both give off a similar decaying beauty about them. Given COVID has decreased the amount of people touring the home, the house gave off a similar half-forgotten about vibe, just like the Lowick Manor. The size of the homes feel similar in the way that Eliot describes as the Lowick Manor grounds as being “confined” (Eliot 73). The Cannonball House feels confined as well because though it is small, the insides contain vast history inside that reflect in the personality of the house as well.

Now of course the homes look nothing alike at first glance seeing as the Lowick Manor is a dark green color and the Cannonball House in Macon is white, but both of the homes appear “small windowed and melancholy looking” (Eliot 73). Another aspect is the idea of “reinvention” present in the homes. My description comes mostly from Chapter 9, but fast forward to Chapter 28, when Dorothea returns to the Manor, she finds it completely redesigned. I draw this comparison to the Canonball House because of the restoration it too experienced following the gaping hole placed in the side of the house courtesy of the cannonball. The interiors of the homes feel similar to me as well. I have only peeked in the window of this House, but it seems to align with the mental picture I have in my head of the interior of the Lowick Manor which is described in Dorothea’s words as having, “dark book shelves in the long library, the carpets and curtains with colors subdued overtime” and “curious old maps” lining the walls (Eliot 74). The contrast of dark and light that often arises in the Lowick Manor is present in both homes this way. This is most notable in the way that the Cannonball home stands on its green hill as a stark white contrast to its surroundings, but contains dark wood that creates an air of moodiness within it. Even the location, good ole’ Macon, Georgia reminds me of the novel as Macon contains numerous similarities to the town, especially in regards to social attitudes and (the lack of) progression present. Macon is a very average town, home to many average people, with incredibly average ways of thinking so it only makes sense that one of the homes there would eventually remind me of a location in the novel as well!

Sources:

Eliot, George. Middlemarch. London, Penguin Group, 1994.

Wright, Adam. The Representation of Place in Middlemarch. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2010.