Manning Gin Farm is a historic agricultural property located approximately half a mile southeast of Bethlehem in Barrow County, Georgia. The site comprises a late 19th- and early 20th-century farm complex featuring a circa 1887 I-house, a circa 1905 cotton gin, and a variety of outbuildings from the farm’s historic operations. The property occupies approximately 15 acres and retains a largely rural setting. The farm was established in the late 1800s and operated by the Manning family until 1945. Crops grown on the farm included cotton, corn, wheat, and oats.
Architecture.
The farmhouse is a two-story wood-framed I-house with a one-story rear ell. It is clad in weatherboard and has exterior brick chimneys at each end, along with boxed cornices, cornice returns, and corner pilasters. A two-story front porch was added in the early 20th century, with the upper portion rebuilt in 1982. Interior features include a central hall floor plan, pine tongue-and-groove walls and ceilings, original doors, mantels, and flooring.
Outbuildings include a circa 1905 metal-sided cotton gin, a warehouse with clapboard siding and a corrugated metal roof, a grain house and harness barn, a mule barn with stalls and a hay loft, a corn crib, a milk barn, a smokehouse, and separate houses for a cook and maid. Additional structures include outhouses, a tenant building, a chicken house, and a shed. Most outbuildings are wood-framed, unpainted, and rest on stone or concrete piers.