re: Mysterious GA: Chapter 1

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Did the Windsor Hotel have a bar, maybe on the second floor that overlooked the street?

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Yeah I think it’s up a floor on the right hand side of the lobby.
The lobby is really neat. Smells like fresh baked cookies, but the rooms are scary man. Real scary. Like third world shithole scary. We had a regular king room and when we got to the room I went back to the desk and told them that wasn’t gona work so we upgraded to the JC suite which really wasn’t too much better but it was cool bc it was in the round tower so the room was round.

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There is no book.

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Oh ..LOL. There literally is a book called Mysterious Georgia. Never was it but have seen it..thought that was the first chapter.

I’ll post on Barnsley in a bit.

No Georgia Guidestones?

Barnsley..worked there before it opened and lived in the area..very interesting history.



Godfrey Barnsley started building the manor on 4,000 (or 10,000 depending who you ask) acres of former Cherokee land in late 1840’s. He was a wealthy trader (cotton) from England that married a Savannah woman (Julia). Julia’s dad built one of the first steam ships to cross the Atlantic.

It was thought by some that Barnsley and Julia were inspiration for Rhett and Scarlett..or maybe their son in law was. Mitchell visited the gardens several times while writing the book. She makes several allusions to this manors furnishings in the book.

It was also told that the grounds are a former Indian burial ground that was planted over.

Julia died of Covid in 1845 before the manor was ever completed..they had an infant child die the same year. Barnsley stops building but returns a year later and sees Julia’s ghost in the gardens and she tells him to continue building.

Spent a few nights in the gardens and may not be Julia’s ghost but something haunts that damn place…also was my first date with my first ex wife..so.

Julia loved horticulture and they brought specimens from all over the world. It was crazy when I was out there in early 90’s..there where all these exotic plants buried in weeds. I still have in my yard a green rose I found there. Their oldest son was killed by Chinese pirates gathering…shrubbery.

The manor was finished in late 1840’s with some of the first indoor plumbing with hot and cold running water and furnishings he collected from world travels. It was built in an Italian style with the gardens inspired by Andrew Jackson Downing..father of American Landscaping.

Colonel Earle of Alabama Cavalry was killed on his way to warn Barnsley that Sherman was coming. Earle was buried in the gardens. Sherman asked the grounds not be burned but they were still looted and partially destroyed.

After the war, Barnsley left for New Orleans but left the property to be run by a man that married one of his daughters..also Julia. He sold timber off the property for ships and was actually killed by a falling tree. Julia remarried and had two sons Harry and Preston. Preston became a heavy weight boxer. He killed his brother Harry over a dispute and for forever you could see the blood stains on the parlor floor..not sure if you still can.

Barnsley died in the 1870’s and is buried on property.

1906 a tornado tore the roof off the manor it was never repaired but family lived on the property until 1942 when it was auctioned and used for farming. Most of the gardens and manor went completely ignored until 1988 when Prince Fugger of Germany (family that took over from House of Medici during the 16th century and basically started modern banking…or so he told me) bought the property. He had two little princess daughters that would run around and he used to ride around in flannel and driving an old pickup.

Fugger startered the modern vision for Barnsley Gardens but got out ..primarily because everybody kept stealing and it was impossible to get good help. One thing he did do was move the Rice House on to the property which was on old civil war house that become a restaurant..you could see the bullet holes as you walked in..sure you still can.

In heard it was some odd stuff

The guide stones are just a prank. Some fifth generation lucky sperm club dude whos never worked a day in his life took the private jet to Elberton so his wife could pick out granite for the kitchen countertops at their newest winter home in West Palm. While she was off doing that, he got bored and threw some pocket change to a local contractor and scribbled some gibberish he learned from Jimmy Buffet at Bohemian Grove on a napkin, told him not to tell anyone, and then took off. Probably long since stroked out by now

Was Bohemian Grove Jimmy’s 13th album?

I just drove down 75 today past Adairsville and saw a DOT sign for Barnesly Gardens and wondered what it was all about. Get home, log into GSB, and here's my answer. Thanks RealDawg.