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Email Sign-UpPresentation on Barnsley Gardens by Clent Coker at November Member Meeting
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After listening to the presentation from Clent Coker (pictured left with Carolyn Mitchell, Program Chairman) on the history of North Georgia's Barnsley Gardens, it became obvious that we knew very little about the history of the property. Four generations of his family lived near the Gardens granting him the opportunity to accumulate many artifacts and stories of the ups and downs of Barnsley. It was out of love that Godfrey Barnsley bought some land and built the house for his beloved wife Julia to take advantage of the fresh air in the Georgia Mountains as she suffered from poor health. Mr. Barnsley was originally from Darbyshire, England and was a respected entrepreneur although he never actually became an American citizen. He did very well in business and was able to acquire 8,000 acres of land that became the house and gardens.
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Our speaker for this month's meeting (pictured left), Michael McDavid, a retired adjunct professor at the former Georgia Perimeter College, brought us an in depth presentation on one of his favorite royal couples, King George V and Queen Mary. His talk started with the early lives of both monarchs who are both of German ancestry. Interestingly, Queen Mary was actually engaged to George's brother Edward who sadly died just weeks after their engagement. Queen Victoria, who was a match maker extraordinaire, went to work arranging for Mary to marry Prince George. Fortunately, it worked and their marriage was a successful one. They both had a strong sense of duty. The couple had five children: David (who would become the Prince of Wales), a daughter Mary, Albert (known as Bertie), George, Henry and John.
The program chairman, Carolyn Mitchell, introduced the speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Dowling (both pictured left), who is an architectural historian and has several books on the subject to her credit. She taught architecture at Georgia Tech for 37 years, Dr. Dowling gave a slide presentation depicting the very beginning of classic Greek and Roman architecture and how it influenced architecture through the centuries, Classical architecture began to decline in England when it became too expensive to design and build structures, especially after the world wars. Fortunately, during the late 80's a resurgence of interest in the preservation of classical design began to immerge in the U.S. and England by architects like Jon Simpson, Quinlan Terry, Craig Hamilton and even a local Atlanta architect, Norman Askins. Universities began to offer classes on classic design. Prince Charles was instrumental in expressing the need to bring back classicism as opposed to the ultra-modern offerings that have been erected in London in recent years. Dr. Dowling showed us some buildings in London that were built recently in the classic style. The same is going in the United States.
