Historic west Augusta house finds new address

Lillie’s home.

That’s how Billie Gardner Hunter has referred to the white two-story home that located at the same west Augusta spot for more than two centuries.

“Lillie was my grandmother, and this was her house. She was 16 when they moved from Milledgeville back to here,” said Hunter, who played an integral part in saving the Skinner-Warren-West-Gardner House at 3202 Washington Road from the wrecking ball by moving it to West Road earlier this month.

The exact year the home was built is unclear. The family has traced its history to around 1806 when William Skinner, an ancestor of Hunter, purchased nearly 4,200 acres from Seaborn Jones. The home appears to have already been on the property at the time. William Skinner never lived in the home, but his son, John, moved into it in 1810.

 “It was supposedly already an old house then,” said Ben Warren Hunter, one of Billie Hunter’s three children, who also played a role in saving the home.

In 1872, the house was placed in a trust for Edna Skinner Jones Warren and her husband, James Warren. The couple would give a parcel of the land for the construction of Warren Baptist Church.

Ben Hunter said many of the first members of Warren Baptist Church were originally part of Abilene Baptist Church. They were dairy farmers and wanted a church closer to home.

Lillie Jones West, the daughter of Edna Warren, would live in the house until her death in 1963 at the age of 106. West had two daughters, Alma and Eva, who married two brothers from Edgefield. Eva lived there until her death 1976 at age 86, and the home’s last occupant, Carolyn Gardner, died in 2023 just short of her 96^th birthday.

Ben Hunter remembers visiting Lillie West when he was a child.

“I remember Mama parking on Washington Road and walking up the steps,” he said.

His sister, Beverly Taylor, remembers a pond and well on the lot and had those details added to a painting she commissioned of the home.

Gardner arranged for the sale before her death. The family had to wait for Gardner’s will to go through probate before they could relocate the home.

“The rest of family didn’t want to see it demolished, so we’re saving it,” Ben Hunter said.

The home was supposed to be moved in the fall, but Hurricane Helene delayed the process.

Family members said that while numerous homes in the Montclair neighborhood received damage, the home was remarkably untouched.

It made its way down Kings Chapel Road and Gardners Mill Road to West Road in two trips earlier this month. The second floor was moved on March 4, and the lower level was moved on March 7.

During the process, the family learned more about its construction including its foundation of several massive logs and stacks of rocks.

“The beams were 38-39 feet long,” said Bob Hunter, Billie Hunter’s son. “They were hand cut with an ax and put together with pegs.”

The original pieces had been marked with Roman numerals during the original construction, Bob Hunter said.

Ben Hunter said they also found family signatures written in chalk in the attic. Several pieces of antique furnishings were also saved.

Billie Hunter said they moved the house to the corner of Skinner and West Roads because it was part of a 10-acre parcel given to her father by Lillie West.

Family members built other homes in the area including a second one that has seen four generations in the Hunter family.

“My grandparents built in 1983. After they passed away, I bought it from mother and aunts,” said Ben Hunter of the second home. He raised his two daughters in that home eventually selling and moving to Columbia County.

His daughter bought it back a few years ago and is raising her children there.

Now that the Skinner-Warren-West-Gardner home is on its new lot, the family will work on its restoration.

They aren’t sure how long the entire process will take.

Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s a Georgia Press Association award winner. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.