The Nearest Exit

Here's a question. What do 50 exits, whoppyjawed construction, and Mrs. O'Leary's cow all have in common? The answer is right here in front of you. Meet the Lapham-Patterson House in Thomasville, Georgia.

It was built as a winter cottage between 1884 and 1885 by Chicago businessman, C.W. Lapham, is a Georgia Historic Site, a National Historic Landmark, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. That's the short story.

The long one goes that Mr. Lapham was a survivor of the Great Chicago Fire and was paranoid about being trapped in a burning building. Therefore, he designed his Victorian cottage with 50 (that would be five-zero) exits - on the off chance, I guess, that there might someday be a Great Thomasville Fire.

But there's more. He intentionally built the house just a bubble off plumb (aka cattywumpus or whoppyjawed) in order to allow the sun's rays during the Spring and Fall Equnioxes to pierce into a third floor room at exactly the right angle. I'm not making this up. It gets even better.

During those equinoxes, the sun's rays pass right through wooden fretwork on the outside of the house that features a depiction of Mrs. O'Leary's cow in its center. Those rays are then reflected through a stained-glass window in the middle of the room, casting a colorful shadow of THAT COW onto the floor.

I would say that this could all be chalked up to "Southern crazy", but let me remind you that Mr. Lapham was from "up North" - which may have explained it all to the good people of Thomasville, Georgia.

Photo by Beth Yarbrough.