The Story
Travelers Rest State Historic Site near Toccoa preserves an early stagecoach inn and plantation house built around 1815 by James R. Wyly along the Unicoi Turnpike, a busy road across the Appalachian frontier when the Cherokee Nation still held the lands to the west. Wyly operated the inn until 1833, when he sold it to Devereaux Jarrett, said to be the richest man in the Tugaloo Valley, who enlarged the building and made it the seat of his roughly 14,000-acre plantation. Three generations of the Jarrett family owned the property until the State of Georgia purchased the remaining acreage in 1955. Noted for its ninety-foot porch and original furnishings, the house was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 29, 1964.
About this site
Travelers Rest State Historic Site is a state historic site in Stephens County, Georgia. It is one of 94 historic sites cataloged in Stephens County on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 34.5447, -83.2730. The nearest cataloged historic site is Stephens Memorial Gardens (cemetery), about 1.0 miles away. Others within a short drive include Eastanollee Auditorium, Stonecypher Cemetery, and Cross Road Cemetery.
This record is drawn from the Georgia DNR Historic Preservation Division. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
History
Travelers Rest State Historic Site near Toccoa preserves an early stagecoach inn and plantation house built around 1815 by James R. Wyly along the Unicoi Turnpike, a busy road across the Appalachian frontier when the Cherokee Nation still held the lands to the west. Wyly operated the inn until 1833, when he sold it to Devereaux Jarrett, said to be the richest man in the Tugaloo Valley, who enlarged the building and made it the seat of his roughly 14,000-acre plantation. Three generations of the Jarrett family owned the property until the State of Georgia purchased the remaining acreage in 1955. Noted for its ninety-foot porch and original furnishings, the house was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 29, 1964.
Sources: en.wikipedia.orggastateparks.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.org
Georgia