The Old Rock House

A little known piece of Georgia history, the Old Rock House, was built around 1785 by Thomas Ansley. Ansley was born in New Jersey in 1737. In 1768, he migrated to the Quaker Community of Wrightsboro, Georgia. The house and a cemetery are all that remain of the Wrightsboro settlement.

The land the house was constructed on was given to Ansley after the Revolutionary War. As a Quaker, he did not fight during the war. However, he supported the war effort as a forager and drover. As a result, Ansley received land grants totaling 2,400 acres after the war ended. (In 2019, a Revolutionary War marker was placed on his grave by the Sons of the American Revolution.)

The house was occupied until around 1950. The Wrightsboro Quaker Community Foundation eventually took over and began to restore the home during the 1960s, which had suffered major damages and vandalism. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

On the National Register of Historic Places, the house is heralded as the “oldest stone house in Georgia, with its original floor plan intact.” It is worth noting that the two-foot thick walls of the home were built with granite that was quarried locally.

The house is rumored to be haunted. There have been claims of people seeing silhouettes and hearing unexplained noises. Both the Central Georgia Paranormal Society and Ghosts of Georgia Paranormal Investigations have done research at the home and surrounding area.