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ROCKY HILL
HISTORY | ARCHITECTURE |PHOTOS
Here's our home sweet home. It's a gem of a place to live…. and although Miz Tanya occasionally complains about its remoteness, we love living here. The house is one of those wonderful old spacious and rambling historic structures with loads of character, and roughly 4,000 square feet of floor space. It dates back to circa 1830, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places where it's classified as a vernacular Greek Revival raised cottage. Read more about our home by clicking one of the text-links above. Prior to our occupancy, it had last been occupied in the early 1970's by a descendant of its original owner in pretty much the same conditions as it was when it was occupied in antebellum times - i.e., with no running water or electricity. Despite our massive rennovation and modernization for creature comforts, it retains its historic architectural elements and original character.
Rocky Hill is located on a quartz-knoll hilltop in a hardwood grove on a dirt road, off of a dirt road, off of a dirt road. There are two ponds, a creek and a stream on the property which attract all sort of interesting water fowl. The creek has been called Chickasaw Creek since colonial times, and is mentioned by Judge Junius Hillyer (1807 - 1886) in his memoirs as he reflects on his childhood "...and that Chickasaw Creek meanders through it. This creek in its course through the pastures was about twelve feet wide, and was of a feeble current." (Boyd, The Life and Times of Judge Junius Hillyer, 1989, p. 64)
We affectionately call our homestead Rocky Hill after a nearby former ancestral homeplace of the same name, and because of the large amount of rocks and boulders on the property - (the house sits atop a quartz vein.) In addition to on-going landscaping projects, we're currently re-painting the exterior for the second time in five years. God willing, and if we're lucky, we hope to finish Rocky Hill's restoration before we find ourselves gumming our pureed food in wheelchairs at the local nursing home.
