Lumpkin House Myth

Originally posted by Adrian

The Lumpkin House, built by the nineteenth-century Georgia politician Wilson Lumpkin, is on the University of Georgia campus. His daughter, Martha Compton, sold the house and the surrounding acreage to the university, and the story goes that it was conveyed only on the condition that if the house is ever torn down then the land would revert back to the family. That story explains why the old house is allowed to still stand.

That is not exactly true, however. Prof. Randy Beck from the School of Law obtained a copy of the deed and showed it to my first-year property class this semester during the segment of our course about defeasible fee simples. My classmates and I quickly deciphered the instrument as conveying a fee simple absolute with a restrictive covenant.

This means that if the university did tear down the house, they would keep the land regardless. The heirs may have standing to sue for breach of contract, however. How they would be identified and contacted in order to cooperate is anyone’s guess.

So I would file this silly story behind the one about the Tree That Owns Itself.

49 years of bicycle commuting

Originally posted by Adrian

I asked Prof. Bob Burton what he thought of the recent discussion in the Athens Banner-Herald about the viability of commuting by bicycle. He said he hadn’t kept up with it but agreed the editorial that started it sounded silly. Basically, the ABH said that commuting by bicycle is impractical and accommodating it is a waste of money. Bob said he has been using a bicycle at the university for 49 years, beginning in his undergraduate days. When he lived in Reed Hall he thought he may have had the only bicycle on campus, and as a reaction to this transportation choice someone put his bicycle in a tree. He got it out somehow. Many mornings I see him riding down Jackson Street on his way to Peabody Hall. Of course, it helps to have your own office to make it easier to store your belongings and change out of your Spandex duds.

Fragrant intellectual visitor

Originally posted by Adrian

The worst problem my friend is experiencing from his house guest is that this visitor has taken about one shower in the two weeks since he arrived. My friend offered to wash his clothes, but he said, no, he didn’t want detergent on his clothes. The visitor is supposedly still recovering from time living in a tent in Athens and following a guru he believed to be Jesus Christ. It seems that the visitor doesn’t have his personal convictions in order because he is shifting among different ideas on a daily basis. My friend had been warned that this man was obviously a little different because he was seen dancing in circles along the streets of his hometown. This visitor is well-read and intellectually challenging, though, so I wouldn’t even begin to question his searchings. The visitor has procured items that suit his vegan diet during his stay, and my friend has enjoyed the new abundance of interesting bagels and whatnot. My friend’s apartment is near campus and downtown, so the visitor has the heart of Athens at his disposal.

Prophet Charles

Originally posted by Adrian

He said his name was “Charles, Prophet Charles.” He lives in a tent and ministers full-time, though he is infinitely better groomed than your average tent dweller. He said he was going downtown to spread the Word. He explained that he gets money by simply finding it on the sidewalk downtown — presumably dropped by drunk people — and sometimes it’s huge wads of cash. God tells him where to walk to find it. I’ve certainly never found anything more than a dime downtown, so who am I to doubt his divine influence.

Map room

Originally posted by Adrian and since edited for clarity.

My grandfather Richard Merchant visited Athens yesterday. I learned that for two years in the 1940s he worked for the Sanborn Map Company in New York. Just this week Tim, who has been reading this blog and will hopefully soon write here, wrote to me about the Sanborn fire insurance map collection at UGA. I called Tim to ask where we might find them, and he told me to go to the Map Room at the Science Library.

In the Map Room we met Tom Hardaway, and we told him about our interest in the Sanborn maps. We figured it might be nice to find a map from approximately the time Richard worked for the company. Tom found a map of Dalton, Georgia, from 1941, and he offered to give us a special viewing of the original color map, explaining that he normally directs patrons to the black-and-white microfilm copies. (After all, Richard was the assistant foreman in the coloring department, so he could appreciate the full color version better.) Tom was kind enough to engage Richard in telling a bit about his life story and found other maps that interested him. Richard talked about his map making experience with Sanborn and the Air Force, and Tom told us that fire insurance maps are not even printed on paper anymore in the computer age. Another staff member, John, joined us for a while, and he gave my grandfather a copy of a “Soldier’s Map of Atlanta” from the 1940s.