Hunt Loft
2007 | 193 West Jefferson St.The heart of this gracious home dates to 1875 when it was built on the site of an earlier house. It has remained in the same family for the 145 years since its construction. The house was originally built with two-over-two rooms on the right and a hall extending the length of the structure on the left. A kitchen and outbuildings were in the rear. This urban townhouse-like plan was not common in small towns like Madison, but was similar to the Savannah home of its builder Dr. James Ervin Godfrey. Twenty years later the Godfrey house took on a more traditional look with the construction of the wide wrap-around porch and a two-story addition on the left that is set back about eight feet from facade. This addition now contains the large library with a bedroom above. Today the visitor can detect the original 1875 appearance by observing the right side of the house that is thrust forward and imagining that the porch is missing.
By 1920 Dr. Godfrey and his wife, Mary Perkins Walton Godfrey, had died and the home had passed to James Erwin Godfrey, Jr. and his wife Bessie. They engaged famed Atlanta architect Neel Reid to remodel the home. Reid gave the interior a more open feel by removing the wall between the hall and the front parlor, adding a bay window to the dining room, and giving the interior his characteristic Colonial Revival trim. Today the entry hall, library, parlor, and dining room continue to reflect the 1920 Reid plan. The light fixture now in the library came from the 1920 dining room and the antique French chandelier in the dining room is period appropriate.
Subsequent renovations and additions have added living space to side and the rear plus modern conveniences. In 1952 Lowry Weyman Hunt, Sr. and Caroline Hardee Candler Hunt (great-grandchild of Dr. and Mrs. Godfrey) obtained the house from the estate of Bessie Godfrey. In 1969 the Hunts moved the kitchen to its current location and built a large den across the back of the house.
The present owners, Lyn and Lowry “Whitey” Hunt, Jr. purchased the house from his mother’s estate in 2002. Under the guidance of noted preservation architect Lane Green, they built the garage-guest house on the south side and completely reconstructed the 1969 kitchen and den spaces. They also excavated a half basement that includes a family room and an office. Interior changes updated bathrooms, added French doors off the dining room, and installed columns to better define the entry hall space between the parlor and library. Lyn and Whitey’s renovations took several years, and work was completed in 2008.
Love and then war brought Dr. Godfrey to Madison. He met Mollie Walton in 1859 while visiting his sister at the Madison Female College. He married the Morgan County girl and took her to reside in Savannah. During the Civil War he served as a surgeon in the Confederate army. In the turbulent years following the war, the couple lived briefly in Atlanta and then for a time near Walton family property in the south Morgan County community of Godfrey. Finally in 1875 they settled in Madison and built this house across Walton Street from the in-town home of Mollie’s family. The following year Dr. Godfrey was elected to the Georgia State Senate. In 1879 the physician branched out from medicine to establish Godfrey’s Warehouse, dealers in cotton, fertilizer, and coal. Now known as Godfrey’s Feed, the family business is still operated by Dr. Godfrey’s descendants, the Hunt family, at its original location next to the Georgia Railroad depot in Madison.
The Godfrey-Hunt home features several family pieces of furniture and art, some of which are thought to have been in the house from the start, notably the pier mirror and furnishings in the parlor. Family heirlooms along with collections of antique maps, arrowheads impart a museum-like feel to the house without taking away from its comfortable, homey ambiance.