Click here to read Down the Primrose Path - Memories of Westville a blog by Steve Fry

Historic Westville
And
John Word West, Pioneer of Living History.

John Word West was born in 1876 at a critical time of change in Georgia. He was keenly aware of the drastic economic and social changes caused by the recent American Civil War (1861-65). For West, however, the change brought on by the new growth of Atlanta combined with the decline of farming was even more dreadful. He valued the handicrafts of Georgia’s citizens. He wanted young people to learn and value the handicrafts of early Georgians.

A high school and college teacher, West committed himself and his own money in 1928 to saving “Georgiana”---the buildings, tools, furniture, and work skills of Georgia’s settlement. He admired the work of two other Americans who also took history into their own hands: Rockefeller and Ford. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (Standard Oil Company family) had started Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia in 1927. Henry Ford (the automobile maker) had started Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan in 1928. West engaged both men and even traded artifacts with Ford.

Then, John West opened “The Fair of 1850” on U. S. Highway 41 in Jonesboro, Georgia, about twenty miles south of Atlanta in 1928. For West, the Fair was the Deep South version of Williamsburg and Greenfield. From 1932 to 1934, he moved the oldest buildings in his collection to the Fair’s site. He filled out the display with numerous other buildings and artifacts.

Perhaps just as importantly, he and others demonstrated the “old-fashioned” crafts for the visitors---woodworking, cloth-making, open-hearth cooking, shoe-making, and the like.

When West died in 1961, Many thought that his beloved “Fair” was finished as well. However, the Fair was far from finished. Its rescue came from deep within rural Georgia. Five years after West’s death, the citizens of Stewart County decided to create a new industry---heritage tourism.

Stewart County was, at the time, making a transition away from its traditional agricultural economy. The county still had many buildings and artifacts from the pre-Civil War days. It also had people who had grown up with the handicrafts that West loved. In some respects, then, the Stewart County of 1850 still existed in 1966.

With much encouragement and leadership from Joseph Mahan, curator of the nearby Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts, Westville Village was established on June 16, 1966 by a group of founders and a Board of Trustees. These original founders of Westville were Edward S. Shorter, Joseph N. Mahan, Jr., Don R. Farr, and Dexter Jordan (all from Columbus), and William P. Carter, S.S. Singer, L.M. Moye, William B. Singer, G.W. Maddox from Lumpkin. These gentlemen were also on the original Board of Trustees along with D. Abbott Turner, Clyde L. Armour, Jr., J.W. Woodruff, Jr., Clason Kyle, Edge Reid, and Samuel H. Wellborn, Jr. (all from Columbus), Mrs. William P. Carter, J.C.Frith, Billy Greene, Ed Holloway, Virginia Barfield, Morton Fort, Jr., Mrs. Charles Lynch, Mrs. L.M. Moye, and George Lee (all from Stewart County) and L. B. Harrell from Ware County.

The Julian Singer Family of Lumpkin donated the rugged land in the southeast corner of Lumpkin for the new site. This area became the new home for the Village and included pasture and forest along with an old mill dam and pond. The Village was laid out in the county seat grid pattern of such area towns as Blakely, Hamilton, Buena Vista, Cuthbert, Lumpkin, Americus, and Talbotton. The next four years were spent preparing the site for the Village, mostly with volunteer help.

In January, 1968, the Grimes-Feagin House became the first historical structure in the Village. “The Fair of 1850” was acquired from the John W. West Foundation at Jonesboro, Georgia for $25,000 and became the core of this new living history museum. The first of six West Collection buildings, the Yellow Creek Camp Meeting Tabernacle, was moved to Westville also in January, 1968. Other of the oldest buildings at the Jonesboro site were later moved to Westville, along with many West artifacts.

By August, 1968, Westville had attracted considerable attention as a grassroots approach to resolving the social and economic problems of rural West Georgia. Westville seemed to be a center where all sides could meet to celebrate the value of heritage.

A large crowd of supporters celebrated the "Founding of Westville” on August 31, 1968. Then-Governor, Lester Maddox, who had just returned from Chicago in his failed attempt to become the Democratic nominee for President, was the featured speaker. The original draft of his emotional and topical speech remains in Westville’s archives.

By June, 1969, Westville had partnered with the Muscogee County School District and the Columbus Museum for “Experiences in Living History.” This three-year project provided teacher training in cultural history to nine area counties. It also established Westville’s crafts program by hiring a staff of people who practiced traditional workskills.

Westville opened its “Gates to the Past” permanently on April 2, 1970.

By 1976, a collection of 27 buildings and about 5,000 artifacts had been placed in the Village. Almost everything, except for the original West Collection, was donated. Westville suffered financial problems from 1977 to 1979. However, visitation in the Village soared because of international interest in nearby Plains,Georgia, home of then President Jimmy Carter. The increase in visitation probably saved Westville from closing.

Since 1981, Westville has concentrated on its educational programs. Westville now serves thousands of children in school groups from schools in several states.

Westville’s reputation is also established, as shown in its listing in Time Machines, a book of the best living history museums of North America. The Village was also honored by a feature in the August, 1999 edition of Architectural Digest. The Supreme Court of Georgia held a session in Westville’s Chattahoochee County Courthouse in April, 1997.

Westville’s visual quality has been attested to many times over the years by the films that have been made in the Village. The largest were The Long Riders (starring three sets of brothers---Keach, Carradine, and Quaid), Walt Disney’s Million Dollar Dixie Deliverance, and ABC’s A Time for Miracles and PBS's Andrew Jackson: The Good, The Bad, and The Presidency.

Westville’s ability to make the past have meaning for the present was recently the subject of a Westville publication. Mike Haskey, award–winning photograher for The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, prepared over a hundred photographs for The Magic and Mystery of Westville. The text was written by Billy Winn, editor for the same newspaper.

Today, we can appreciate John Word West’s contribution in a larger context. With the exception of a few years in the 1960s, West’s project has demonstrated “Georgiana” to the public continuously since 1928. Historic Westville therefore can rightly claim to be rooted in the third-oldest living-history project in America.

For further information on West, see his Pioneer Life in the South in the 1850s.