The Gold Mine in the Closet: Mary Garrard

You know about Mary Garrard.  We’ve all been to see her before at Laurel Grove Cemetery.

Billy on the left, with wife Alice, and Mary on the right.

Here’s Mary as a small child.  She was the daughter of the oldest Lawton daughter, Margaret, who married a Garrard.  The youngest Lawton daughter was Sugar’s mother, so the two girls were only about 4 years apart, even though they were aunt and niece.

The Garrards lived in a house in Gordonston, an early subdivision of Savannah.

 

This next photo looks like later in the same day as the previous photo.  Genette has removed her coat, but Mary looks like she’s wearing the same clothes and expression.

 

Now this next photo makes me wonder what’s going on here.  Is this a family member, or perhaps a nurse, holding a baby?  Is this baby Mary’s little brother, Billy?

 

 

“Billy, William & Mary G”
This is Mary, her little brother Billy, and their father William.

 “MISS ANNE WARING, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Antonio J. Waring, and MISS MARY GARRARD, daughter of Mrs. M. L. Garrard (Mrs. Margaret Lawton Garrard), at the debut dance given in honor by Dr. and Mrs. Waring Thursday evening at the Hotel De Soto.”

An unidentified woman and Mary in the military during World War II.

Somebody, somewhere, knows the answers.  It’s just not me.

The Gold Mine in the Closet: Gordonston, The George A. Murphy Home

It’s hard to keep up.

I’m back-tracking to some more photos I took while we were in Gordonston taking photos of Sugar’s grandparents’s house and his aunt’s house.

 

Mr. George A. Murphy owns house number 3 in the above brochure.

While we tooling around Gordonston, hanging out the van window taking photos and looking completely incognito, I spotted an older home that surely was on the brochure.  I started thumping the brochure like it was a Bible and I was a street preacher.

 

My goodness, like a fine wine, this just keeps getting better.

The Gold Mine in the Closet: The Garrard House in Gordonston

 

 

 

How old do you think Sugar’s mother Genette looks?  She’s the one on the left.  The little girl on the right is actually her niece, Mary, the child of Genette’s sister Margaret, who was the oldest in the family and Genette was the youngest.

Mary was born about 1918, and her brother Billy in 1919.  So let’s imagine it’s about 1920, perhaps early in the year during cooler weather, given that the childen are wearing coats.  Perhaps the matriarch of this group, Mary “Leslie” Basinger Lawton, would walk with her little daughter Genette over to the Garrard house, and help take care of the children.  I’m completely making that up.  But they did live in the same neighborhood, so why wouldn’t they?

Here’s the Garrard house.  Let’s imagine again that the time frame is about 1920.  I don’t know yet when the house was built.

Here’s the sales brochure again.  The Garrard house is on the bottom row on the left.

 

I’ve cropped the photo out of the brochure.  Here it is.

The tree on the left seems to be much bigger, and the side arbor seems vine-covered.

 

The address is right, but the house has been changed a lot.  I see dormer windows on the 3rd floor now. And the foliage on the right property line is so dense from the street all the way back that we couldn’t get a proper shot from that angle.  At any rate, the arbor has been enclosed to make a room, and yet another room was added onto the end of that.  The enclosed arbor still has the columns which are visible above; at least, one column is visible.

In 1928 Margaret and her husband William Garrard were living at 7 Kinzie in Gordonston.

In 1930, they are living at 600 Chatham Crescent, which is not in Gordonston at all.  Remember there’s not a 1929 City Directory for Savannah, unless Sugar has a copy in a closet.

 

So we’re wondering why both the Lawtons and the Garrards left beautiful Gordonston around 1929, when suddenly we realize…

The Depression.

The Gold Mine in the Closet: Gordonston, Revisited at 11 Edgewood

According to the Savannah City Directory, the Edward Percival Lawton family was living at 11 Edgewood in Gordonston prior to 1930.

I took the Lawton house photo from the Gordonston sales brochure, which can be seen in the previous post, and rotated and cropped the photo.

So we’re looking for a Dutch Colonial, if my design history serves me well.  Y’all feel free to call me out if I’m wrong.

 

The house is on a corner, so we were able to make the turn and look into their backyard.  ‘Cause we have no shame.

 

We turned around, which took some doing, because y’all know that I am from the South and it is bad manners to turn around in someone’s driveway, which meant an all-out three-point-turn in the middle of the street, and cruised back by.

 

This door in the photo above is the front door.  It seems an odd arrangement, but perhaps it led to a foyer? mud room?  Air lock?

Sugar’s mother Genette is on the bicycle on the left. I don’t know who is on the right. Perhaps Garnett Basinger, who would be Genette’s Uncle Walter’s daughter.

Unknown woman, but clearly someone important in their lives, which is why people took photos in those days.

Sugar’s grandmother is on the left. I can’t identify anyone else, so I’ll leave that up to you people out on the internet.

Perhaps the child on the left is Matilda Basinger. And we don’t know who the baby is. Mary “Leslie” Basinger Lawton sits on the front steps of the house with her youngest daughter Genette to her left.

For some reason, in the box of photos are identical photos of Mary “Leslie” Basinger Lawton and one of her sons-in-law, Howard Read, who married her daughter Leslie.

Here’s Leslie and Howard’s daughter, Margaret Louisa Read.

Don’t forget the interior shot again.  This room looks so pleasant and cool.  Of course, there was no television, and I’m wondering about a radio.  No air conditioning, no central heat, no storm windows.

Mary “Leslie” Basinger Lawton, her daughter Mary Genevieve “Genette” Lawton, her grandson Billy Garrard, her daughter Margaret Lawton Garrard, and on the floor, her granddaughter Mary Garrard.

And that’s 11 Edgewood.  The numbers have changed, but the basic facade remains the same.  It looks like an addition was added to the rear, from the photos we took a few days ago.

 

From the 1928 Savannah City Directory, we find that Edward and Leslie Lawton were living at 11 Edgewood in Gordonston. Their daughter Genette is listed as Jeanetta. Yet the following year, when Edward dies in Paris, their address is listed at 219 East Gaston Street on the death certificate. There is no 1929 City Directory in existence, unless Sugar has one in his closet.

Oh, to step back in time.  This is a close second.

The Gold Mine in the Closet: Gordonston

Sugar thought that his grandmother lived at one time with her daughter Margaret Garrard in Gordonston. His mother would have been the youngest child and still living at home in this time period.  He has a photo, or three, of them in and at a house in Gordonston, and he knew that the Garrards lived in Gordonston.  Surprise!

Both the Garrards and the Lawtons had houses in Gordonston, as shown by the sales brochure obtained by SugarCousin Emily from the Stanford University Library.  How she found that brochure is beyond me, but that girl has mad, crazy skills.

 

Courtesy of Stanford University Library, via a SugarCousin.

 

Why You Should Build

in Gordonston

 

Gordonston consists of over eighty acres

of high, well drained land divided into

beautiful homesites by winding drives

and attractive parkways.

 

Gordonston has over three miles of

paved streets.

 

Gordonston has over three miles of ce-

ment sidewalks.

 

Gordonston has gas mains to every

house now built and we guarantee gas

to every new home.

 

Gordonston has a modern system of san-

itary sewers and house drainage, ample

to take care of all future needs.

 

Gordonston is supplies (sic) with city water

from the city water main.

 

Gordonston has telephone service to

every home.

 

Gordonston has electric service to every

home, as well as a street lighting system.

 

Gordonston is the highest residential

district in or near Savannah.

 

Gordonston is equipped with city fire

plugs and has the protection of the Sa-

vannah Fire Department.

 

Gordonston has efficient street car

service.

 

Gordonston has daily house to house

mail deliveries, as well as regular deliv-

ery of morning and evening papers, ice

laundry, groceries, and packages from

the shopping district.

 

Gordonston has over five hundred

budded pecan trees.

 

Gordonston has over six hundred scarlet

crepe-myrtle bushes.

 

Gordonston has abundant beds of ever

greens, cedars and annual flowers.

 

Gordonston has a ten-acre original

growth forest reserve of red bud, pine,

poplar, cedar, gum, oak, magnolia and

sycamore.

 

Gordonston has every city improvement

and all modern conveniences but no city

taxes.

 

The accompanying statistics on the de-

velopment of Gordonston and the list of

home owners in Gordonston assure the

great future of this beautiful subdivi-

sion.  Homesites in Gordonston can be

obtained within the reach of everyone

desiring a lot in a carefully restricted

residential section.

 

Certain parts of this tract are restricted

to bungalows and Savannah’s most beau

tiful bungalows are in Gordonston.

Other parts of the tract are restricted

to two story houses.  This insures a uni-

form building line which makes the ap-

pearance of the streets very pleasing.

 

Let us take you out to Gordonston at

your earliest convenience and go over

the prices of the beautiful homesites.

We are in a position to finance the build-

ing of our home on a small cash invest-

ment and the balance paid either in

monthly or quarterly payments.  It will

be our pleasure to have the opportunity

to take you out to Gordonston, and it

will place you under no obligations to

have us do so.

 

Phone

57

WILTON PUDER

REALTOR

 

Gordonston

Home Owners

DEVEREAUX BACON

H. H. BACON

W. F. BALDWIN

P. F. BALLINGER

B. B. BARNES

C. R. BEACH

M. E. BRAY

H. W. DABNEY

MRS. MARY DeBORDE

R. DOWMAN ERNST

WM. GARRARD

W. W. GORDON

W. M. GURNEY (Est. W. W. Gordon)

FRED J. HOWDEN

FRANK M. HUFF

E. E. HUMPHREY

STEWART JOHNSON

W. B. LAIN

E. P. LAWTON

O. F. LITTLEFIELD

A. G. MUNRO (E. C. Thompson)

GEO. A. MURPHY

ALEXANDER NICHOLICH

A. P. REED

J. T. ROCHE

H. B. ROCKWELL

H. L. SALSBURY

LEO SCHWEIZER

W. F. SHEPPARD

M. D. STEWART

O. E. STEWART

R. J. TAYLOR

*****

“Home ownership is a beautiful mental and

moral effect upon the whole family.”

 

No. 1 – Home of Mr. B. B. Barnes.  No. 2 – Home of Mr. W. M. Gurney (Est. W. W. Gordon).  No. 3 – Home of Mr. Geo. A. Murphy.  No. 4 – Home of Mr. P. F. Ballinger.

No. 5 – Home of Mr. W. W. Gordon.  No. 6 – Home of Mr. Devereaux Bacon.  No. 7 – Home of Mr. Wm. Garrard.  No. 8 – Home of Mr. E. P. Lawton.

You’ll note that there are 8 homeowners and 9 house photographs on the brochure.  We finally saw the faint numbers by the houses that linked them to the homeowners.  The one house that does not have a name in on the bottom row in the middle. I’m not sure why you would include a house randomly inserted unless it was a spec house. Somebody somewhere knows the answer, but it’s not me.

So there you have it.  Mr. E. (Edward) P. (Percival) Lawton owns a house in Gordonston. Wouldn’t it be grand to see a photo of it?

Mary “Leslie” Basinger Lawton, her daughter Mary Genevieve “Genette” Lawton, her grandson Billy Garrard, her daughter Margaret Lawton Garrard, and her granddaughter Mary Garrard.

And the bench on the left with the hearts carved into the base?

Sugar has it.

And the bookcase at the right rear?

Sugar has that, too.