This Craftsman-style house has recently been restored by Scott & Susan Spivey. It was built by Fitzgerald pioneers Clayton and Bessie Jay in 1926. Their granddaughter, Lydia Jay Mason, writes: My granddaddy was three-term mayor, drew the map up for the creation of Ben Hill County when it split from Irwin in 1906, practiced law for 50 years, bought property for Evergreen Cemetery and planted Magnolia trees at its entrance, and drew and designed the city parks on Main and Central. Very quiet but well respected man! They first lived at 810 South Lee Street (beginning in 1906) but felt it was too far out, so in 1926, they built this house at 415 South Main. My aunt Ruth Jay moved back about 1969 to care for my grandparents. After their deaths, she continued to live in the house until the Lathams (Maynard & Mickey) moved in.
South Main-South Lee Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Home of my wonderful grandparents and a home that was filled with love. Many days were spent on that front porch rocking with my grandmother and visiting with friends as they walked by! Thanks for evoking memories!
OMG. I was in the Army with Charles Jay from Fitzgerald
The senior Jays lived in the Walker house. It had a playhouse back where the barbecue went in after the war. Clayton Jay told me he wAs a boy when they moved the playhouse up Lee street to the new house. He sat in a rocking chair and told me he remembered looking at the lots where my house was later built and it wasn’t there yet.
Clayton’s divorced son lives in mrs. Stephens house catty cornered from the Synagogue.
Sent from my iPhone
>