page_title: Johnston–Felton–Hay House
section_title: The Johnstons
hierarchical_section_title: Johnston–Felton–Hay House / House history / The Johnstons
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Johnston-Hay House, 934 Georgia Avenue, Macon, Bibb County, GA Other Title: Johnston-Felton-Hay House Creator(s): Historic American Buildings Survey, creator Date Created/Published: Documentation compiled after 1933 Medium: Photo(s): 2 Photo Caption Page(s): 1 Reproduction Number: --- Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. (https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html) Call Number: HABS GA,11-MACO,17- Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print Notes: Survey number: HABS GA-275 National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 71000259 Subjects: houses Place: Georgia -- Bibb County -- Macon Latitude/Longitude: 32.84056 ,-83.6325 Collections: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey Part of: Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress) Bookmark This Record: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ga0403/ Rights assessment is your responsibility.
context_page_description: The Johnston–Felton–Hay House, often abbreviated Hay House, is a historic residence at 934 Georgia Avenue in Macon, Georgia. Built between 1855 and 1859 by William Butler Johnston and his wife Anne Tracy Johnston in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, the house has been called the "Palace of the South." The mansion sits atop Coleman Hill on Georgia Avenue in downtown Macon, near the Walter F. George School of Law, part of Mercer University. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973 for its architectural uniqueness.
  The 18,000-square-foot, 24-room home was designed by the New York architect T. Thomas and Son. It was built in part by craftsman and artisans brought from Italy who were supervised by local master builder James B. Ayers.It has four levels and is crowned by a three-story cupola. Commissioned by imaginative owners and constructed by the most skillful workers of the time, its technological amenities were unsurpassed in the mid-nineteenth century: hot and cold running water, central heat, a speaker-tube system connecting 15 rooms, a French lift equivalent to today's elevator, in-house kitchen, and an elaborate ventilation system.
context_section_description: William Butler Johnston obtained his substantial wealth through investments in banking, railroads and public utilities rather than from the agrarian cotton economy. In 1851, he married Anne Clark Tracy, 20 years his junior, and the couple embarked on an extended honeymoon in Europe from 1852 to 1855. During their trip, the Johnstons visited hundreds of museums, historic sites and art studios. They collected fine porcelains, sculptures and paintings as mementos during their grand tour. Inspired by the Italian architecture they observed, the Johnstons constructed the monumental Italian Renaissance Revival mansion in Macon upon their return to America. Only two of the Johnstons' six children survived to adulthood. Caroline and Mary Ellen Johnston were born in 1862 and 1864, respectively, and grew up in the house on Georgia Avenue.
caption: The Hay House living room
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1024", "Image ImageLength": "826", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "1", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "4", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 14.0 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2015:12:18 22:45:27", "Image ExifOffset": "244", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "394", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7318", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "776", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "622"}