Oak Hill & The Martha Berry Museum - Oak Hill

Oak Hill

Oak Hill is a 170-acre (0.69 km2) estate Greek revival mansion. Oak Hill was an original Victorian-style farmhouse that was built in 1847. During the American Civil War and the capture of Rome during The Atlanta Campaign, the estate was used by the Union soldiers as a place to stay. Charles H. Smith, whose widely known pen name was Bill Arp, owned the estate before he sold it to his colleague Andrew M. Sloan. Thomas Berry and his family moved to Rome, Georgia from Alabama in 1868 to become a partner in Berrys and Company, a wholesale grocery and cotton brokerage business. Around 1871, his business became successful, and Thomas Berry decided to move to a better place so he purchased the estate from Sloan for $9,000. Thomas and his family: his wife Frances Margaret Rhea, his eight children, and his late brother James' three orphaned children moved into the farmhouse. In 1884, after the farmhouse caught fire and burned down, Thomas rebuilt and restored it as a Greek-style Revival home, named Oak Hill.

Thomas' will stated that he left his possessions, home, and 160-acre (0.65 km2) estate to his eight children to be sold, and for the money to be divided equally among his children after the deaths of his wife & himself. Martha Berry urgently desired to keep the house as her home, her schools, and symbol of her triumphs and tragedies. In October 1927, her family sold their shares of the Oak Hill estate to her, and she in turn deeded the estate to The Berry Schools, for five dollars.

Once Oak Hill Estate was transferred to The Berry Schools, Martha decided to make home improvements, and hired the Boston architectural firm Coolidge and Carlson, who had built the Ford Complex and an addition onto the chapel on the Berry College campus. In the course of 1927-1928 renovations, the interior of the house was stripped down to the studs and replaced with plaster walls. A decorative element in the hallway was a long case clock, a reproduction of an eighteenth century colonial-style piece made by Berry Schools industrial arts teacher Frank Gottshall. Electricity and indoor plumbing were added as part of the renovation. Six and half bathrooms were installed to replace the outhouse located behind the house, as well as steam heating, as the house was "almost impossible to heat with open fireplaces". Included in the renovation were the "new" parlor, kitchen, pantry, library, 1930s elevator, two bedrooms, portico on the rear of the house, and large addition to the back of the house beyond the two columns at the end of the hallway.

Significant changes included combining the dining room and parlor into one room, adding the bay window and Chinese Chippendale mirror, to serve as a social hub. The dining room was relocated down the hall where the former master bedroom was. The dining room's wallpaper is the Isola Bella print (a wood-block print) that was popular in the 1920s. The same wallpaper can be found today in the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee, Florida. The colonial-style furniture in the dining room was made by the Berry students under the direction of same teacher who did a hallway case clock. The kitchen and pastry areas served as entrance way for the students and the maid to get to the dining room to serve the guests. The kitchen had all new 1920 amenities such as a monitor-top refrigerator, food storage space, a bell system, stove, and cabinets.

The library, with its pecan paneling (and one of Martha's favorite rooms), was added in 1928. The decorative woodwork of the library was the same work that William F. Ross Company did on the Ford buildings. The elevator was installed in the 1930s and was donated by the Berry Alumni Association for Martha, because of a heart condition that precluded her climbing stairs. The elevator was from the floor near the kitchen and pastry to the second floor, in Martha's dressing room. Her new bedroom and dressing room were installed with the elevator area, bathroom, private screening, and simple wicker furniture of designs of the Arts and Crafts revival movement that were made by Berry students. The remodeling of Oak Hill allowed Martha a place to showcase her educational and personal philosophies to guests.

The unrenovated areas are those that were used by Berry family and students. These original rooms belonged to Martha's mother, Frances Rhea Berry; her niece, Virginia Campbell Courts; her sister, Bessie Wright, and Wright's husband, Judge Moses Wright, who served as the first Berry Industrial School for Boys trustee. They lived with her until their deaths. Another room belonged to Berry female students who worked for Martha by doing work skills.

In October 1972, the estate was opened as a museum to the public in the celebrating of Martha's 106th birthday. Oak Hill's outbuildings, Berry Gardens, bridal walk, original cabin, and Martha Berry Museum were included in the 1972 opening. The Oak Hill Gift Shop was opened 24 years later. The estate was used as a filming location for several films including Sweet Home Alabama, Perfect Harmony and Remember the Titans.