Our hearts are quite fond of this property. The incredible pink Queen Anne style home with its soaring gables, was built on Prince Avenue in 1897 by Charles H. Newton for his wife Mary Reed Newton and his 5 children: Charles, Virginia,Charlotte, Janet and Catherine. After the death of their parents, the sisters stayed in the home creating a hub for creativity and academia. In 1924, with a masters in nutrition from Columbia University, Catherine Newton became the second woman hired on as faculty at the University of Georgia.
The Newton estate sold the property to my family in 1996. The lot was overgrown and the home was too. There were a few college age kids that lived and held their band practice in the mansion. I recall going into the backdoor and thinking my father had really lost his mind. The floors were full of holes, the plaster was falling off the walls. It was a mess, but my father and uncle turned it around. When my father opened the doors to his office in the Pink House in 1997, Ms. Catherine Newton was there to see the home restored to glory. The home was then placed on the National Historic Register, and it has since received recognition twice from ‘Historic Athens’, our local preservation society.
The Newton Family has a significant weight in Georgia. It is said that in the late 1700’s Reverend John Newton of nearby Oglethorpe County was the first ordained Presbyterian minister in Georgia. The John Newton Family, specifically the Reverend's son Elizur, appeared in my research about the tile that was salvaged from an attic bay at The Pink House. I also found that a piece of the Reverend's writing with historical significance was in the hands of Charles H Newton of 892 Prince Avenue, direct descendant.