CAMAK HOUSE HISTORY

The Camak House was built in 1833-34 by James Camak, a prominent Georgian. Camak came to Athens in 1817 to join the faculty at the University of Georgia, where he taught mathematics for two years. He married Helen Finley, the daughter of Rev. Dr. Finley, then the President of the University.

In the 1830's, James Camak began a textile mill. It was first known as the Camak Factory, but its name was changed to the Princeton Factory in 1834. He was a director of the Branch Bank of the State of Georgia when it was established in Athens.

James Camak was instrumental in the promotion and incorporation of the Georgia Railroad, the first railroad in Georgia (and only the third in the country). It was in the library of the Camak House that the incorporators met, on March 10, 1834, to accept the charter of the Georgia Railroad. James Camak was elected as its first president.

Politically, Camak was a member of the Troup Party in the 1830's, while it was in the majority. Among other things, he laid out the Oconee Hill Cemetery, and he was a member of the team that surveyed the boundary between Georgia and Tennessee. In addition to his business concerns, James Camak was the head editor of the Southern Cultivator magazine and was instrumental in establishing the county's first agricultural society in 1845. He often experimented with new varieties of grasses, grapes, and plums on his land around his house until his death in 1847. Descendants of the Camak family remained in the house until 1947.

Today, the Camak House is located on a four-acre city block in Athens that is bounded by Meigs, Finley, Hancock, and Newton Streets. Originally, however, the property line continued northward to Prince Avenue, and was the first house built in the Prince Avenue area of Athens. In the early 1900's, Meigs Street was cut across the property and the land between Meigs Street and Prince Avenue was purchased by The Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

The Camak House and remaining property stayed in the family until 1949, when the house and grounds were sold to the Mount Vernon Lodge No. 22 of the Masons. The Masons did extensive renovations on the house, altering original floor plans on each of the floors, and substantially destroying the original floor plans on the basement and top stories.

The Masons used the Camak house as their lodge until 1979, when The Coca-Cola Bottling Company bought the property. The Coca-Cola Bottling Company used the house for storage and also constructed a sand and gravel parking lot for its trucks on the eastern third of the tract.

In 1992, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation acquired the house and the 2.8 acres of the block not included in The Coca-Cola Bottling Company's parking lot. Late that year, the house was purchased by the Athens law firm now known as WINBURN, LEWIS & STOLZ, LLP. Extensive restorations began shortly thereafter, and, in December of 1993, the law firm relocated its offices from College Avenue to the Camak House.

The Camak House is one of the oldest houses still existing in Athens and one of only a few homes built in the Federal Style. It was listed in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) catalogue in 1936. The Camak House and the entire four-acre city block was placed on The National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Thereafter, in 1990, the house and a .648 tract immediately surrounding it was designated as an historic landmark under the Athens Historic Preservation Ordinance and placed under the protection of the Athens Historic Preservation Commission.