Mike already tells you about all you need to know about Nicholas Ware in today’s episode, so let me focus on his home, which was derisively nicknamed “Ware’s Folly.”

The house was completed in 1818 at a total cost of $40,000, which would be well over $12 million today. Part of this derives from the elaborate styling on the outside, and part of it is from the extravagant details on the inside, including a three-story elliptical staircase.

The house, as Mike noted, is now the home of the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, which was founded in 1932 as the Augusta Art Club and later renamed in honor of founder Olivia Herbert’s daughter Gertrude Herbert Dunn.

By 1936 the Art Club was in need of classroom and gallery space, and the house had been neglected for many years and was facing demolition. Olivia Herbert saved the building and donated the money for renovation. The following year the Institute was established and renamed after Gertrude, who had recently died of spinal meningitis.

The house acts as the Main Gallery building and Administrative Offices for the Institute, while another house directly behind it was expanded, renovated and converted into classrooms in 2001.

If you’re in Augusta, the Institute could make for an interesting diversion.

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