Georgia Farmhouse Adapted Over Time

Fletcher Family Home | Irwin County, GA | c. 1800s

This Georgia farmhouse looks much different today than it did when it was originally built by the Fletcher Family in the mid-1800s. Its original configuration was what is known as a “dog trot” style home, and although the style was popular for many years in this region, it was adapted over time as families grew and conveniences were more available. In fact, if you were able to peel back the boards of any old farmhouse in Georgia, there is a chance you’d find the original, more rustic design of a farmhouse like the dogtrot. Like the Fletchers, many families found that they were able to modernize their homes, bringing these early homes a future.

What is A Dog Trot House?

If you’ve never seen a dog trot home, this style features a wide central hall down the middle, that was usually created by adjoining two separate cabins or ‘pens.’ This design was perfect for the era because it provided private sleeping quarters that were separate from the living space. Off of the back of the house were a porch and a detached kitchen. The circulation from front to back of the house would cool off the rest of the structure and in the Summer, the family dog could often find himself cooling off in the shade of the wide central hall, hence how the name dog trot (or dog run) style house came to be.

The Fletcher Family

According to a detailed account of the family’s history in “The Fletcher Family of Irwin County And Their Kin,” the Fletcher’s came to Georgia by way of Virginia and then South Carolina. Once they made it to Georgia, the lines spread all over and still have vast connections today. One of the descendants of this line, Wiley, established a family here where he built this dog trot style home to raise 12 children with his wife Caroline.

A House That Changed With The Family

The home that Wiley built would serve more than one generation of Fletchers, but as the family grew and times changed, th house had to keep up. When Wiley’s son, Elbert George McClellan (E.G.M.) Fletcher came of age, he married Mary Jane “Polly” Hobby in 1889 and after some convincing, Polly agreed to move into the home where E.G.M. had grown up, on the condition that it be updated. So sometime between the 1890s and early 1900, the home was reimagined with a fresh coat of paint and a new fence for the next generation of Fletchers.

E.G.M. and Polly raised 8 Fletcher children in this home, most of whom were born within these walls. But as the years went on and the Fletcher Family prospered, it was time for another update. By the early 1900s, dogtrot homes were no longer in fashion for those families who could afford something more modern, so they came up with a plan to adapt the old family home. Sometime before 1910, they enclosed the dogtrot and likely made other upgrades to make the home more comfortable. Elbert and Polly would live together in this home until she passed away in 1916.