Tag Archives: South Georgia Fraternal Lodges

Though it’s best known as the Elks Lodge today, this is one of Fitzgerald’s oldest houses. It was built by local banker E. K. Farmer in 1905. Originally a wooden edifice, it was much smaller than it is today and had no columns. The wings were not part of the original, either. In 1918 the Powells purchased the property and remodeled it to look like FDR’s home, Springwood, in Hyde Park, New York, adding the brick, round portico, and side wings. The Fitzgerald Elks Club purchased the property sometime in the late 1950s and added a ballroom to the rear of the house. The present owners, Mark & Anna Oliver,  added a courtyard and carriage house across the drive which includes the tenth bedroom. Anna, who shared the history, writes: In the main house there are nine bedrooms, three baths upstairs and three half baths downstairs. Originally we think it was a six bedroom house. It was built with a central vacuum system in the walls and a basement. The house is presently for sale and would make a wonderful investment. A commercial kitchen and ballroom are included. Brenda Seabrooke recalls: The house was for sale in 1941. It didn’t sell so the Powells ran it as a florist in the 1940’s. I remember seeing buckets of flowers in a room off the kitchen. There was one bedroom with a full bath I think to the left of the ground floor stairs. In winter those rooms were an ice cave. Bamboo grew along the back and east side to screen the turpentine distillery and Kicklighter’s service station.