President's Article

by Drew Payne

President, Griffin-Spalding Historical Society

A Familiar Griffin House - with Cousins in Texas and

Illinois

The Wheaton-Collier-Jackson-Sieweke House

636 East College Street

Sometimes history comes looking for us.

Recently, the owners of a historic home in Highland Park, Texas, outside Dallas, contacted the Griffin-

Spalding County Historical Society with an intriguing discovery. Their 1921 Colonial Revival home had

architectural cousins in other parts of the country—including one right here in Griffin.

The original Highland Park, Texas, house as published in House & Garden in 1926.

The Texas house, at 3926 Potomac Avenue, was designed by noted Dallas architect Hal Thomson for James and Mabel Elliott. James Elliott was president of a lumber company. In June 1926, House & Garden featured the residence in an article titled “Informal Architecture in the Southwest.”

The story long told in Griffin is that someone here saw the house in House & Garden and used the published design as the inspiration for the home later built at 636 East College Street. We have not yet found the paper trail proving exactly how the design made its way south, but the resemblance is unmistakable—and the timing certainly fits.

Griffin was not alone. A remarkably similar house was built at 6136 Crain Street in Morton Grove, Illinois, outside Chicago, in 1927. That house was built for Fred Leonard Fuhr, president of the Morton Grove Lumber Company.

The Morton Grove, Illinois, version of the design.

Then, around 1930, the design appeared in Griffin. Robert Wheaton, of the prominent local building and lumber concern Robert Wheaton & Sons, built the East College Street house. With the Elliott, Fuhr and Wheaton connections, it is interesting that the story of all three houses intersects with the lumber business.

The Wheaton-Collier-Jackson-Sieweke House, 636 East College Street, Griffin.

Today, we might appropriately call 636 East College the Wheaton-Collier-Jackson-Sieweke House, recognizing the families who have each written a chapter in its history.

For many years it was the home of Howard and Mattie Collier. Mattie was a great benefactor and friend of the Griffin-Spalding County Historical Society. The house later became home to their daughter, Ann Collier Jackson, and her husband, Don Jackson, and afterward to their daughter, Ann Jackson.

The Collier family was also closely tied to Griffin’s once-thriving knitting industry. Griffin Knitting Mills had been incorporated in 1926 to manufacture underwear, hosiery and other knitted apparel, and Howard Collier purchased the East Broadway mill in late 1937. His son-in-law, Don Jackson, organized Jaco Knitwear in 1946 to manufacture T-shirts. In 1956, Jaco Knitwear and Griffin Knitting Mills merged to form Griffin-Jaco Mills. Operating at 830 East Broadway Street, the company became a major maker of knitted underwear, T-shirts, sweatshirts, outerwear and sportswear; its underwear was sold under the Dixknit name. Howard Collier later served as president, and Don Jackson also served as president of the company. It is a small piece of Griffin history worth remembering, when knitting and textile mills were an important part of the city’s economy.

Many Griffinites also remember Mattie Collier’s beautiful garden on the additional lot beside the house. Happily, that garden remains an important part of the property today.

The current owners, John and Janet Sieweke, are members of the Griffin-Spalding County Historical Society and have meticulously maintained the house and grounds. When the owners of the Dallas house contacted GSHS, we were delighted to connect them with John and Janet—and, in the process, learn just how far the architectural story of this familiar East College Street house extends.

— Drew Payne, President

Griffin-Spalding County Historical Society