Statesboro was a no brainer for the next stop on our list. Any time you look for anything abandoned in Georgia, at least one picture of the Harville house pops up somewhere.

We started our trip around 8 in the morning. Of course we forgot a few things…so we ended up leaving closer to 9. One day we will bring everything on the first try- but not this trip.

I wish I could say the trip there was uneventful… but we all know by now that is never the case. A used her phone for directions, and it didn’t really see how important it was to update as we turned… or tell us to turn in general. Ok…maybe that last part was A not paying attention- but I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus (it was totally A’s fault).

Once we finally made it to Statesboro, we both agreed on one big thing- we needed to go to the bathroom. Now, most of the time when you go on long trips, you can use the restroom wherever you are going… But, for us the places we are usually going don’t have running water. We made a quick stop at a local gas station and punched in the address A had for the Harville house and we were once again on our way.

Unfortunately for A, every way to get to the house seemed to be blocked by one thing- dirt roads. A does NOT like to drive her car down a dirt road. To make things worse… A just got a brand new car, and she was not getting it dirty.

(editor’s note: the dirt road pictured above, was the driveway. The actual dirt roads we had to drive down, were freshly scraped Georgia red clay. I shoulda bought a truck. -A)

We tried to find other ways to get to where we were going… but every road led to a dirt road. I was waiting on A to park the car, tell me to get out, and make me walk the rest of the way to the house. Thankfully, she eventually gave up and turned down a dirt road…which led to another dirt road…. which led to another one…. which did not lead to the Harville house.

The GPS finally said “you have arrived,” but there was no house in sight. I really thought A was going to lose it… I was prepared to get caught in the crossfire. Thankfully, after a little searching we set out in the right direction- to a paved road. The directions said we were about 9 minutes away… but we ran right into the house as soon as we made it to the paved road.

The house is surrounded by “no trespassing” signs, and sits right by another house. A pulled into a driveway and tried to get out of the way as best as she could. We decided to be respectful of the signs (and the house). We stayed on the one side and near the road to take pictures.

 

There was a historical marker near the road. I was a little disappointed that something deemed as historical prohibits you from fully enjoying all of it, but I understand. It was falling down, unsafe, and on someone’s property. I can understand why they didn’t want everyone walking around getting hurt. But, I really wanted permission to be closer… and walk about a bit.

The historical marker gave a little background into the house. It was built around 1894, by Keebler Henry Harville. The house was originally one story, but was added onto in 1904. According to bullochhistory.com, the house was build by timber from the farm, and after the addition had 14 rooms (after reading this I kept wanting to call it a hotel…but its not a hotel…its a house…where one family lived). The farm itself was self-sustaining.

The Harville’s where pretty important in the area. Their history is pretty interesting. For a fun little fact- Keebler’s father, Samuel Winkler Harville, was sent as a delegate from Bulloch County, to the 1861 Secession Convention and voted for Georgia to secede from the Union.

A ton of things say the house is haunted… but I’m getting the feeling that anytime something is old, people seem to think its haunted. I can’t tell you how many places we visit that are “haunted.” I guess I’ll believe it when I see it. No blue lights or other haunts where seen on this trip, so as far as I’m concerned the house is not haunted.

We weren’t quite done with Statesboro yet. We still had one more stop- the old Meat Packing Plant… but you can read about that next time.

 

-B

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