Piece-by-piece, the Lauderdales transformed Fair Havens into luxurious estate
It’s 5 p.m. at Fair Havens Estate in Arnoldsville, and the late summer sun is streaming in through Linda Lauderdale’s tastefully draped windows.
Inside, the gilded dining room is glistening in the light. On the other side of the windows, Lauderdale points to the columns lining one flank of the 213-year-old estate.
Those, she said, she salvaged from the old Navy School in Athens. A friend saw them, called her, and said, “‘They’ve got a whole bunch of these columns here in the dumpster, do you want them?’ We were like, ‘Yeah!’ We’re like Sanford and Son. When you’re doing a place like this that’s this big, you’ve got to figure out how to do it cheap.”
With no formal training and the help of many mentors, artists, volunteers, students and historians over the years, Lauderdale and her late husband, Ken, managed to turn what was once a skeleton of a house into Fair Havens Estate — an Arnoldsville mansion fit for royalty that has since served as a bed and breakfast and event venue for guests from near and far.
In June, former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal married Lauderdale’s close friend and former sister-in-law, Brenda Micali, at the estate.
Over the seven years it took to fully restore the historic home, the Lauderdales found unbelievable bargains, yet it looks anything but cheap.
Nearly every inch of the home is dripping with the kind of craftsmanship only possible by master artisans. From the large collection of hand-carved Victorian furniture, to the hand-painted murals on several of the home’s walls, to the hundreds of yards of hand-sewn velvet drapes that line the estate’s many windows.
Lauderdale calls the work “interpretive restoration,” designing according to what the home could have looked like back in the day.
“Getting all the furniture for it was a treasure hunt,” she said. “We wouldn’t go to high-end places, but we went on a trip to New Orleans or something, and stopped at little antique shops. I pretty much remember every piece of furniture here and where we bought it. It’s like an Easter egg hunt.”
Storied history
Merchant Jacob Allen originally built the Federal-style home in 1812 in Warrenton, Georgia, and it served as a doctor’s house and a boarding house before it was moved to Arnoldsville in four pieces in 1983.
It sat vacant on the property for 12 years, until the Lauderdales purchased it in 1995 and began the long process of restoration.
“When we bought it, it was a shell,” Lauderdale said. “It had the fireplaces, and it had the wood on the outside, and it had a roof. It had the parts, so then we started putting it back together.”
And despite all of the hard work and hardships that come with this kind of all-consuming project (Ken once fell through the floor of a different home and broke his ribs while sourcing a screen door for Fair Havens), Lauderdale said she wouldn’t have it any other way. She loves salvaging old things.
“I had wonderful grandparents, and my granddad would throw things in the ditch that my grandmother wanted, and she would say, ‘Linda, go out there!’” Lauderdale said. “And after he’d thrown something away, I’d go out there in the ditch and bring it back. It felt like a treasure hunt to me.”
The name, Fair Havens, is a biblical one, inspired by Acts 27:8. Lauderdale said the beginning of her marriage to Ken (her second marriage) was difficult. But over the years, their marriage grew strong, and she wanted the house to be known as a place for safe refuge.
Lauderdale said she and her husband made a better team than she could have ever imagined when it came to historic home restoration. The two restored eight houses in their time together, and married their strengths at Fair Havens — his in real estate and hospitality, hers in design and antique sourcing.
Ken was a master host and gladly took on much of the work of the bed and breakfast, from the cooking to the entertaining. He died of cancer in 2023, and Lauderdale has had to scale back operations.
“It’s been a privilege, really, and it has been really hard with him dying,” Lauderdale said. “Everywhere I look, he’s here.”
Looking ahead
Kevin Curlee, Lauderdale’s nephew, is moving into a log cabin on the property this fall to help usher a new era of Fair Havens to the county, and he said his uncle Ken has been an inspiration to him.
“Investing your time into someone else’s life is not something everybody likes to do,” Curlee said. “He was exceptional at it. He paid very close attention to people. That was the amazing thing about him.”
Curlee hopes to restart the bed and breakfast business and begin hosting events at the estate again in the coming months. He also has plans to restore the old general store on the property to its former glory, start a working farm (eventually selling goods at the store) and connect with the surrounding community to host niche events, like fundraisers or antique fairs.
Curlee is moving to Fair Havens from Florida, where he worked as an aquarium specialist for Disney for years, and is excited to dive into a new industry in his retirement.
He remembers spending many Christmases and Thanksgivings with his family at Fair Havens, and now wants to share his love for the property with others.
“I just love interacting and meeting new people,” Curlee said. “It’s part of what attracted me so much to working in zoos and aquariums, especially at Disney, was the joy of creating a great guest experience.”
Alex Perri is a master’s student in journalism at the University of Georgia. She previously worked at the Transylvania Times in Brevard, North Carolina.