Efforts to preserve the Minnie Cole House have enriched Cashiers’ cultural heritage
The Cashiers Historical Society recently presented the 2022 Village Heritage Award to McKee Properties for their continued preservation and restoration of the Minnie Cole House, located at 619 Highway 107 South and home to McKee Properties.
Beth Townsend is the current owner of the Minnie Cole House.
The purpose of the award is to annually recognize and celebrate the historic preservation of an existing structure in Cashiers.
Residents nominate a property based on the criteria that the building has been built or repurposed in keeping with the old village feel.
The Minnie Cole House is an example of the adaptive reuse of one of Cashiers’ most iconic buildings.
An inside look at the reused Minnie Cole House.
One technique places its construction prior to the Civil War. The house, itself, offers few solid clues, because it is a vernacular dwelling of a type that could have been built during a wide range of years. Additionally, the house has been substantially remodeled in recent years.
Architecturally, the Minnie Cole House is composed of several sections. The one-and-a-half- story center section is probably the oldest.
It is of log construction with weatherboard siding and a steep gable roof that faces the road. A stone chimney, flanked by original wavy glass pane windows, rises slightly offset from the center of this section of the façade.
Some of the reused architecture at the Minnie Cole House.
Its prompt 2022 extensive restoration by McKee Properties further protects the future of this historic landmark.
Through the years the structure was home to several local families, housed the post office, and was a restaurant – an early iteration of Winslow’s – before A. William McKee bought the property in 1989.
The property is currently owned by Beth Townsend and is home to McKee Properties.
Pictured at the top of the article is the outside of the Minnie Cole House.
Article by Sandi Rogers, Cashiers Historical Society
Photos by Marjorie Deal Christiansen, The Laurel Magazine