138 Henderson Ave.

House Instructions

Restrooms are available. There will be refreshments.

About the House

This house was built in 1912, and the homeowners have heard that it may have been a Sears Catalog kit house but have been unable to confirm that this is true. However, there is a very similar house on Springdale Street which leads them to believe it could have been a mass-produced blueprint. They do not know much about the house’s history aside from a physician living here with his family in the 1940s.

When the Mr. Mattes accepted a position at UGA, he traveled here to Athens to look for a new home for his wife and himself. He spent some time with a German family on Dearing Street and immediately knew that he wanted to live in this little area and nowhere else. The couple looked at around 20 to 30 houses, but nothing else would do.

They feel lucky to have been able to rent a house on Henderson Avenue, which they moved into in July 2011. They bought the house in May 2012 and added a pool and a pool house in 2013. The pool house was intentionally designed to complement the historical main house.

When they moved in, in 2011, the homeowners were first greeted by Martha de Beaugrine, who had grown up in the house next door and returned to Athens as a retiree. She was a fantastic neighbor and friend and really helped them settle into the neighborhood, taking great interest in their children and introducing their family to whoever wanted to meet them.

Next, came a Mississippi mud pie from Peggy Galis and a welcome basket from Joan Bertsch. The homeowners were accepted into the neighborhood with open arms and have shared so many memories– most happy, some sad– and experiences with neighbors, as one would only normally experience with close family. They could not imagine living anywhere else.