‘A Magnificent Home’

Converse-Dalton-Ferrell house keeps downtown’s past in the present

By Dean Poling

VALDOSTA — Newspaper articles heralded the construction of the residence that would one day be known as the Converse-Dalton-Ferrell House.

A Jan. 11, 1902 item in The Valdosta Times noted: “A magnificent new home! The residence of Mr. T.B. Converse is now nearing completion. Work by S.F. (Fulgram), cost approximately $16,000. Finer work done by the Miller and Crosby — wood finishing in oak, the wainscoting, panels, etc.”

One-hundred-and-seven years later, the Downtown Valdosta North Patterson Street structure remains a magnificent place. For the past quarter century-plus, it has been owned, operated and maintained by the Valdosta Junior Service League.

“It really is our home,” says Stefani Carroll, the VJSL house chairman. “It’s the heart of the League. It was purchased and renovated to keep a piece of Valdosta’s past alive and be a home for the League.”

For several recent months, the League continued meeting on the building’s third-floor, but the Converse-Dalton-Ferrell House was otherwise closed for the latest round of renovations. Now, with the work completed, the Converse-Dalton-Ferrell House is open to rent for wedding receptions, anniversaries, celebrations, meetings and other social functions.

During a recent afternoon, while discussing the building, a bride-to-be and her friends arrive to tour the home for the possibility of renting it as a hospitality center for her wedding plans.

They have much to see.

Walking through the doors, visitors step into a 12-foot-wide center hall, looking up to 20-foot-high ceilings, leading to polygonal and rectangular rooms, wide doorways with 14-foot-tall pocket doors. A semi-dome effect caps the center hall ceiling with carved picture molding. Pine floors stretch underfoot. A massive staircase captures the attention as soon as one steps through the door.

VJSL descriptions of the house’s attractions and rooms include “paneled and balustraded,” “moveable sash wooden interior louver blinds,” a dining room with “recessed china cabinet, an exquisite oak beamed and molded ceiling, and large chandelier that is original to the house,” first-floor sitting room and bedroom with “tongue-and-groove ceilings,” plumbing fixtures original to the house, a second-floor exit to a balcony, second-floor sitting rooms, three bedrooms, and third-floor sleeping attic and ballroom.

The house seems to have as many names as it does rooms. These names represent families who called the house their home.

Thomas Briggs Converse Sr. had the neo-classical house built, with a design by architect Alexander F.N. Everett, and constructed by Stephen Fagan Fulgram, according to the VJSL history.

“The lumber for the house was cut from Converse land. The Converse family, which included 13 children, lived in the house until 1915, when Converse moved his family to their new home (Oakwood), located east of the city.”

One story about the home during the Converse family’s time there concerns locks on the doors. In “Memories,” a booklet on the house by Gloria Dalton Sorenson, someone apparently tried selling Converse locks for the house’s doors. Noting the number of children, eight of whom were sons, Converse said he had no need for locks because someone was always coming and going.

After the Converses moved, T.B. Varn used the structure as a boarding house for nearly a decade.

In 1923, O.D. Dalton purchased the house for his family. He had 10 children, one son and nine daughters, the youngest being Gloria Sorenson. The Daltons lived in the house and rented rooms through the 1950s, with the property later being acquired by Emma Dalton and Valerie Ferrell.

In May 1982, the Valdosta Junior Service League purchased the house. In April 1983, the house became part of the National Register of Historical Places. Restoration was completed in December 1983.