The Home of Trisha Yearwood

We visited the Home of Trisha Yearwood the other day. Far be it from us to tell anyone what to do, since we observe the Prime Directive. But, it’s our opinion that the locals should rename the town that. Monticello, the name that is on all of the signs into and out of town, seems like it is not quite working for them. It is human-scale, though, and we appreciate human scale living.

Directions

At the end of the driveway take a left. At the stop sign, take a right. That’s Monticello Road, and it leads to Monticello. The city will have to get bigger signs if they rename the town. It’s about 30 miles. You will pass through Shady Dale, where we get our rough cut lumber. There’s also a dairy along this road, and a place that packs off big bags of mulch.

Side Topic: Naming the Roads in the Southeast US

We should talk about this now. Thomas Jefferson and the Freemasons that founded the country insisted on the Northwest Land Ordinance of 1785. What that basically said was that all newly settled land should be marked off in a grid, aligned north and south, with a system of townships and counties.

But most of these towns were laid out before all of that happened. These towns were laid out according to the existing foot and horse paths in the area which were cut out of the woods by the native people in an unplanned manner.

That’s why a lot of these places, like the Home of Trisha Yearwood, are at the intersection of about seven highways. They named the road after the place where it goes. If you wanted to get from Madison to Monticello you just went down Monticello road. Confusion sometimes arises when you get about halfway. At that point, the road changes names. In the Home of Trisha Yearwood, that same road is called Madison Road.

Because of this, around here, tourists are frequently confused about where they are. It also probably has an effect on the locals. We can talk more about this later. Maybe in the Home of Trisha Yearwood they are used to it.

There is evidently a Trisha Yearwood Highway somewhere around, so the idea must be spreading.

The Home of Trisha Yearwood: Essential Elements

You would expect that the Home of Trisha Yearwood would have all of the Essential Elements. One of her albums, Jasper County, is named after the place, or maybe vice versa. There are Confederates, rich peoples’ houses, and an old cotton warehouse, right where it should be on the old railroad line. These things are around because of the development of this place as a little farm center.

Trisha Yearwood artifact from Monticello GA

Trisha Yearwood sign from the Visitor Center in Monticello

The Shrine to Trisha Yearwood

It’s right in the town square, in the Visitor Center, across from the Confederates. The locals have converted an old department store into the visitors center. The inhabitants were very friendly, but stopped short of going out into the street to drag us in. They’ve erected a little Trisha Yearwood display, because she hasn’t been around quite long enough to have a museum. She might be an improvement over the Confederates when it comes to a statue though.

A few other famous people, including a famous Nascar driver, a few NFL players, and a former governor of Alabama, also come from here.

Miss Georgia USA for 2014, by the way, was Tiana Griggs. Here’s her pretty dress. She is not as famous as Tricia yet.

Trisha Yearwood poster at the Visitor Center

The Town Square

We had to walk around to see what was up. We went in the Five Loaves, the little sandwich shop, and ordered the Monte Cristo and lemonade. A couple of young girls, very attractive in a Trisha Yearwood way, served us at the counter.

We’ve noticed that a lot of these little southern town retail places employ pretty young girls. Because the town square is a bit of a bubble, we might get the idea that all of the young girls in a place are pretty. Maybe the less attractive ones work in Eatonton.

The feast was a Monte Cristo with some nice potato salad. In the rest of the country, a Monte Cristo is a sandwich piled high with ham and cheese, and then fried in a pan like French Toast. In the Home of Trisha Yearwood, it’s a ham sandwich that is put into a grill, and grilled, and in some places, this is called a Cuban.

It was good, big enough to share, and the potato salad was fine.

We had a conversation with some of the young people who were in charge, who seemed a bit baffled at why we would care whether they knew correctly what a Monte Cristo is. Maybe they just thought it was a fancier name than Ham Sandwich. The outside world has not quite penetrated this particular sandwich shop.

All Eyes on Egipt

Ah, some Nuwaubian influence. This store is just around the corner from the visitor’s center. The story of the Nuwaubians is in infamous in this area. We have talked about this before. The remains of this are now scattered around the country, but were once concentrated on Highway 142 between here and Eatonton.

For reference, you might want to click the link below, ref: “The Nuwaubian Nation of Moors.” The actual store was quiet at noon on Thursday. They might be in the Chamber of Commerce at this point. Hard to tell.

Sign on the smoothie shop, Monticello GA

The Smoothie Store

There is a new one of these. The owner was on the sidewalk in front of the place talking on the phone. He was proud enough to identify himself as the owner. But, he didn’t follow us and drag us into the place like the guy in Winder did. We appreciated some of the rustic, and the shiplap.

We got the story of this place from the surly teen, a young male, that was working behind the counter. This store is trying to sell $9 health-infused smoothies at the town square. The owners are from Monroe, and are just opening. We wish them well. Since we have studied the Little Southern Town Business Plan, we know that despite the lower rent here versus Monroe, they are going to have problems selling $9 vitamin shakes. Trisha Yearwood’s home town has a four-year older average age and has 33% more poor people than Monroe. On top of that, the locals don’t know what a Monte Cristo is.

We wish them well. The surly teen and owner indifferent to potential customers on foot might have some kind of side gig lined up where they are making money, because the place was rather empty at noon on Thursday.

We also didn’t stimulate the local economy with a healthy vitamin-infused smoothie.

Why the young male was not hanging out under the town tree with some of the pretty girls in the sandwich shop is a story of missed opportunities. A country song needs to be written about that.

Greek Revival

There are a couple of examples of these beautiful old homes in the Home of Trisha Yearwood. The style is typified by the columns, which are very often very ornately carved. Because of the need for shade, there is also very often a wrap- around front porch, and in the purest expression, the landscaping is highly controlled.

The first one of these we looked at is a half mile off of the town square, along one of the roads out of town, and is a clear opportunity for someone. We like opportunity when we see it, and in this case it would be to cut back some of the lushness, because that is the way it was originally.

The second one recently sold, and it is a former B&B, Reece Hall. This very prominent place, on one of the other main roads. It sold for $429,000. We are not above Zillow Stalking some of these places when we get the chance, because we can. I put the link at the end of the article.

Zillow Stalking

This is a five-bedroom two-bath lovely Greek Revival place. According to the price history, it sold for $70,000 in 2014. So, in the last seven years, someone bought it for the giveaway price. They put some life force into it, which we respect. The house was originally listed for $590,000, converted it to a B&B with upgrades like a Chef’s Kitchen, and very elegant parlor rooms.

It’s a pity we couldn’t tour it.

Here are a couple of things we do know. A very similar place is for sale in Madison, 1000 square feet bigger but 6 bathrooms instead of two. That place is valued on Zillow for $1.2 million.

There’s one other difference, which is the taxes. Taxes for the Reece House in the Home Town of Trisha Yearwood are $4500 a year. Madison, for the similar place, they are $12,000 per year because it is Madison.

The Reece House Bed and Breakfast in Monticello

The small town B&B Business Plan

I am telling you this because there are a lot of sub-plots to this story. You get an old place, built in 1820, for next to nothing. You pump energy and life force into it, thereby hoping on the high end that it would be worth at least as much as a similar place in Madison.

In the end, you are happy to have had the experience but you must feel like you fell short of your American Dream. You can speculate as to why that happened. Feel free to click us back if you have a theory, because we are all about learning. We have a theory. In this case, maybe neither the B&B nor the real estate business quite worked.

Lessons are everywhere.

beautifully decorated grave in Monticello

The Prosperous Church

We stopped in to the Presbyterian church in town. This lovely building was pictured in the Historical Society as one of the original structures in town. This old church has been expanded a couple of times, and is tidy and welcoming.

There is a little graveyard in back, and we wandered around in it for awhile. Along with Woodmen and Masons, we also found a Confederate, as we often do in these places. What we also found is a family that managed to lose 5 children under the age of 5, and their little monuments are laid out near the family plots.

The upcoming book about Little Southern Town graveyards still needs to be written, because there are stories in here too.

One of the lessons of this place, as we keep reminding you, is that the “good old days” is “now.” At no other time in history has this area been healthier and more comfortable, at least for the “town square” people. Because of rural electrification and air conditioning, and now Wi Fi, you can have a pleasant life here in the Home Town of Trisha Yearwood. This would have been unthinkable a century ago.

Sometimes these places talk to you, because they have a spirit. The home of Trisha Yearwood is like that. When we give the seminar on Little Southern Towns we’ll give you our ideas on why this is. Maybe there is no Wally Mart here for a reason.

Sometimes the spirit is effusively high energy. Sometimes the spirit is a little sleepy.

We still think renaming the town might be a way to perk the place up. But, because Trisha won’t be famous forever, we wouldn’t blame them for not doing so.

Be there in the square, with a couple of pretty girls or from the sandwich shop, or attractive young gentlemen, if you can.

Here are some antiques, by the way.