Historic Westville | Columbus City

Historic Westville was a living history museum that recreated life in 19th-century South Georgia, ultimately relocating to Columbus, Georgia, to reach a broader audience and improve sustainability. Though it is now permanently closed as of 2024, its legacy as a significant cultural and educational institution endures. The site combined architecture, craftsmanship, and first-person interpretation to immerse visitors in the world of the American South during the 1840s–1860s.

Founding Vision and Origins

Historic Westville began as the vision of John Word West (1876–1961), a schoolteacher and historian who was deeply committed to preserving the material culture of antebellum Georgia. In 1928, West founded the “Fair of 1850” in Jonesboro, Georgia, which aimed to recreate the environment and practices of a typical Southern village from the mid-19th century.

He collected buildings, artifacts, and tools from the region and moved them to a central site for public education. His vision was part museum, part historical theme park, but always with a strong educational mission.

After West's death, a group of historians and preservationists sought to preserve his collection, which had fallen into disrepair. This led to the founding of Westville Historic Handicrafts in Lumpkin, Georgia, in 1966, which officially opened to the public in 1970. The site operated for over four decades in Lumpkin and attracted thousands of visitors, school groups, and researchers interested in Southern heritage.

Relocation to Columbus, Georgia

By the early 2010s, declining visitation, remote location, and increasing maintenance costs made the Lumpkin site unsustainable. A decision was made to relocate the museum to Columbus, a larger urban center with existing tourist infrastructure, cultural institutions, and better accessibility.

The relocation process began in earnest in 2014, requiring massive logistical efforts, including:

Dismantling, transporting, and reconstructing 17 historic buildings.

Designing a new site layout within Columbus to preserve the character of a 19th-century Southern town.

Upgrading utilities and amenities to meet modern museum standards while retaining authenticity.

Historic Westville officially reopened in Columbus on June 22, 2019.

Site Features and Interpretation

At its peak in Columbus, Historic Westville was a working village complete with costumed interpreters, preserved buildings, and artisan demonstrations. The site was curated to resemble a mid-1800s Southern town, with functioning craft shops, domestic buildings, educational spaces, and civic structures.

Key Structures Included:

Old Chattahoochee County Courthouse (1854)
One of Georgia’s oldest wooden courthouses, it provided a historical setting for legal demonstrations and interpretive programming about governance and civic life in the 19th century.

Billingslea House (1845)
Built using heart pine and enslaved labor, it served as an office and exhibit space. Its presence was a powerful lens through which visitors could explore race, class, and labor in the antebellum South.

Wells House
An architecturally significant structure originally built by the Yuchi tribe, showcasing a hybrid of Native American and European building techniques. It offered insight into indigenous contributions to Southern culture.

Stewart County Academy (1831)
A former educational building and Masonic lodge, used to interpret early schooling practices and community organization.

Tift House, Blacksmith Shop, Cabinetmaker’s Shop, and Kitchen Gardens
These buildings supported demonstrations of daily trades, agriculture, and domestic chores, forming the backbone of Westville's hands-on educational experience.

Living History and Educational Mission

Historic Westville’s core mission was education through immersion. Unlike traditional museums, visitors didn’t just observe artifacts behind glass—they could walk into homes, sit in old school desks, and watch craftspeople ply their trades using 19th-century tools.

Daily Demonstrations Included:

Blacksmithing: Forging tools, nails, and horseshoes in a working smithy.

Weaving and Spinning: Creating textiles on traditional looms.

Carpentry: Using period tools to construct furniture and building components.

Open-Hearth Cooking: Preparing meals in historic kitchens, showcasing antebellum foodways.

Printmaking: Using antique presses to reproduce newspapers or posters.

Costumed interpreters, trained to portray historical characters or simply guide visitors, added authenticity and depth. They not only performed tasks but engaged visitors in discussions about history, social norms, slavery, politics, and technological change in the 1800s.

Special school tours, heritage days, and seasonal festivals—such as Old-Time Christmas—were central to its educational outreach.

Struggles and Closure

Despite its success in recreating a compelling and educational 19th-century environment in Columbus, Historic Westville faced ongoing financial pressures:

Operational Costs: Maintaining dozens of wooden structures, staffing, and historic preservation is extremely expensive.

COVID-19 Pandemic: The site was severely impacted by closures and reduced attendance from 2020 to 2022.

Declining Revenue: With low visitor numbers and limited donor support, sustainability became increasingly difficult.

In 2023, the museum was temporarily closed for review. By February 2024, the Board of Directors made the difficult decision to permanently shut down Historic Westville. The cost of maintaining and staffing the museum could not be justified without significantly higher visitation or new funding sources.

Cultural and Educational Legacy

Historic Westville's closure marks the end of one of Georgia’s most immersive and interactive historical resources. However, its legacy remains significant:

It introduced thousands of students to life in the pre-Civil War South.

It preserved rare historic buildings that might otherwise have been lost.

It served as a bridge between academic history and public understanding.

It celebrated the material culture, diversity, and complexity of Southern life in a critical historical period.

Some of its buildings and artifacts may yet be preserved or moved to other heritage institutions.

Though the village no longer operates, Historic Westville remains a benchmark for how living history can educate, engage, and inspire. It was a vital part of Georgia’s cultural identity and a cherished resource for those seeking to understand the human stories behind the architecture and traditions of the 19th-century American South.