Dances with Mice
11-12-2004, 23:11
(I'd provide a link, but the AJC requires registration)
--------------
Log cabins run in this mayor's family
By TINAH SAUNDERS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/11/04
Roswell's dapper mayor is well known for his affinity for log cabins. But few people know it's a family tradition.
Jere Wood is most often seen at City Hall or in his office on Canton Street sporting a bow tie and a crisply starched dress shirt. But he not only lives in an expanded log cabin circa 1810, he works in a law office that began life as a log cabin in 1830. His wife, Judie Raiford Wood, runs a timber-frame artists' gallery her husband and some friends built for her in 1995. His mom, Tillie, lives next door to the couple in a timber-frame house Jere built for her some years ago. But it was Tillie's mountain retreat that started it all.
When Jere's parents married in 1940, Roy Wood was a student at Virginia Tech. The couple went looking for an inexpensive place to live and stumbled on an old log cabin in the mountains around Blacksburg, Va. It had not been lived in for years except by cows. The roof leaked. There were no floors or electricity. They made it habitable and lived there while Roy completed his degree, then bought the cabin for $300.
Every summer, the elder Woods returned to their beloved retreat. After Roy retired in 1981, they added on to the original home and built a bunkhouse for hikers traveling on the Appalachian Trail.
"I love to meet the people. They're all so interesting," Tillie said. "I used to fix them breakfast, but now it's just coffee and doughnuts."
Since her husband's death in 1987, Tillie still visits the cabin from the beginning of May until the end of June each year, savoring the quiet and the scenery and, perhaps, the memories.
"My favorite place is the porch. You can see for 15 miles," she said. "And the hummingbirds hum all around you."
Ironically, the Woods' 11 acres of woods in Roswell are surrounded by the growth Mayor Jere has so valiantly tried to contain. The dead-end street — where a faded yellow mailbox reading "Hog Heaven" marks the long gravel driveway — is lined by mega-mansions, each larger than the last.
"When we moved here, we were one of five houses on the street," said Judie. "We used to have goats, hogs, dogs and cats, and they'd all follow us down to the creek for a bath." That was before lean-to No. 1, which added an indoor bathroom and tiny kitchen to the original one-room cabin. Lean-to No. 2, constructed about 15 years ago, gave the couple a more generous kitchen (with Viking stove) and porch.
Few log cabins have a basement. This one does, because Jere and a few friends decided to dig the footings twice as deep as they needed to be before reconstructing the cabin on the foundation in 1975. Later, the couple turned it into a cozy master suite with commodious closets, laundry facilities and a grand view of the woods from the king-sized bed.
--------------
Log cabins run in this mayor's family
By TINAH SAUNDERS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/11/04
Roswell's dapper mayor is well known for his affinity for log cabins. But few people know it's a family tradition.
Jere Wood is most often seen at City Hall or in his office on Canton Street sporting a bow tie and a crisply starched dress shirt. But he not only lives in an expanded log cabin circa 1810, he works in a law office that began life as a log cabin in 1830. His wife, Judie Raiford Wood, runs a timber-frame artists' gallery her husband and some friends built for her in 1995. His mom, Tillie, lives next door to the couple in a timber-frame house Jere built for her some years ago. But it was Tillie's mountain retreat that started it all.
When Jere's parents married in 1940, Roy Wood was a student at Virginia Tech. The couple went looking for an inexpensive place to live and stumbled on an old log cabin in the mountains around Blacksburg, Va. It had not been lived in for years except by cows. The roof leaked. There were no floors or electricity. They made it habitable and lived there while Roy completed his degree, then bought the cabin for $300.
Every summer, the elder Woods returned to their beloved retreat. After Roy retired in 1981, they added on to the original home and built a bunkhouse for hikers traveling on the Appalachian Trail.
"I love to meet the people. They're all so interesting," Tillie said. "I used to fix them breakfast, but now it's just coffee and doughnuts."
Since her husband's death in 1987, Tillie still visits the cabin from the beginning of May until the end of June each year, savoring the quiet and the scenery and, perhaps, the memories.
"My favorite place is the porch. You can see for 15 miles," she said. "And the hummingbirds hum all around you."
Ironically, the Woods' 11 acres of woods in Roswell are surrounded by the growth Mayor Jere has so valiantly tried to contain. The dead-end street — where a faded yellow mailbox reading "Hog Heaven" marks the long gravel driveway — is lined by mega-mansions, each larger than the last.
"When we moved here, we were one of five houses on the street," said Judie. "We used to have goats, hogs, dogs and cats, and they'd all follow us down to the creek for a bath." That was before lean-to No. 1, which added an indoor bathroom and tiny kitchen to the original one-room cabin. Lean-to No. 2, constructed about 15 years ago, gave the couple a more generous kitchen (with Viking stove) and porch.
Few log cabins have a basement. This one does, because Jere and a few friends decided to dig the footings twice as deep as they needed to be before reconstructing the cabin on the foundation in 1975. Later, the couple turned it into a cozy master suite with commodious closets, laundry facilities and a grand view of the woods from the king-sized bed.