Welcome to the oldest stone house in the state! Construction dates back to 1795 and the ancestors of the former President Jimmy Carter are among its previous residents. It’s also one of the only remaining structures linked to the small Quaker community of Wrightsboro, Georgia.
It’s been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1970 and is now on Georgia’s Places in Peril as of this year (2025). It’s located down a small dirt road in the middle of an undeveloped area so it’s taken a bit of a beating over time and all of the restoration that happened in the early 1980’s is pretty much gone. Rural areas are awesome for privacy and wildlife but a magnet for vandalism when there are structures like this!
They’ve now locked the area up tight complete with barbed wire fencing and cameras, and it’s only open to the public a few days out of the year for special events. You can still roll up and see it from afar, and there’s a cemetery right across the road you can visit for a 2-4-1 situation. Definitely worth a trip, imho.
Thomas Ansley was the builder of the rock house and a devout Quaker. He and his family are buried here, with a small plaque to honor Ansley’s involvement in the Revolutionary War. While Quakers vehemently opposed slavery and would not fight in war, a stance that cost many of them their own lives in the end, Ansley did drive wagons and help in other regards. He was gifted the land the cemetery and house sits upon for his services.
The Ansley family cemetery has no remaining gravestones due in part to a massive tornado aka The Tornado of 1875 (a class F-4) that cause loads of damage to the area. But there was a larger marker placed on the site in 2002 and there’s a short list of names for the family buried in this spot.
And even after all these years there’s still a Quaker community in the area near Athens! They hold services every Sunday.
If you’re already in the area exploring these locations then it’s definitely worth a trip to the grave of Blind Willie McTell at Jones Grove Baptist Church.
