Georgia Magazine - January 2021 - 12

My GEORGIA

By Kathryn Green

Barnesville, my mom and
the renovation bloodline

O

n June 4, not long after Josh and I
celebrated our six-month anniversary,
we got a call that changed our lives. My
mom was in an accident. Eleven days later, we lost
the matriarch of my family.
A little bit about my mother: Anne Claxton
was a phenomenal woman. She loved to surround
herself with " old stuff " and endless projects. She
saw the potential in everything, whether it was a
mistaken teenager or an empty 14,000-squarefoot buggy-manufacturing facility in downtown
Barnesville. She lived the motto that " no task is too
big. " You would often hear her tell my nephew, " If
you stick with me, you're going to know how to do
something! "
While riding through town on the
way to my grandparents' house one
Sunday afternoon, Mom fell in love
with Barnesville. In 1989, my parents
decided to move three toddlers from
an Atlanta suburb to a one-stoplight
town an hour south of the city. Mom
wanted us to grow up with a sense of
community, in a safe environment
surrounded by new friends who would
soon become family.
My parents have an enormous
talent for restoring and refurbishing products, homes and businesses,
including three houses and seven
commercial buildings in Barnesville. Mom served on numerous
civic committees and clubs and on the city council for 16 years.
Anne Claxton never fell out of love with Barnesville.
After the accident, she spent several days in the intensive
care unit and later a wonderful hospice center in Macon.
During those two weeks, Josh and I spent most nights in
Barnesville with family members and friends. For the first time
since he moved to Georgia, Josh experienced the community
surrounding us. We had the support of the entire town. I said
many times during that horrible month, " If we still lived in
Atlanta, we would just be a number. " We were not just a number
in Barnesville.
It did not take long for us to decide to make the move back
to my hometown-the town that Mom chose for her family and
the town that we are choosing for our future family.
On Sept. 8, we officially purchased our first house together

12

Georgia Magazine

January 2021

Above: Anne Claxton and her
daughters, Courtney (left) and
Kathryn, pose in a horse-drawn
buggy in front of the house that
brought the family to the town.
Left: The home that Kathryn
and Josh Green bought was built
in 1896 by Walter B. Smith. His
father, J.G. Smith, was a buggymaker in Barnesville, which was
the buggy capital of the South
in the 1800s and still celebrates
its heritage with the annual
Barnesville Buggy Days Festival.

as a couple. It is a bit of a fixer-upper, but the bones are great.
(That's what people say to make the daunting renovation task
easier, right?)
Luckily, Josh and I both have restoration in our genes. Now
we begin the task of transforming a 124-year-old house into our
dream home.
Let's go make Anne Claxton proud.
Kathryn Green is the communications specialist at
Barnesville-based Southern Rivers Energy. She is chronicling
her adventures in home renovation in her blog, Our Little Big
Dream, at ourlittlebigdream.com.
To submit a My Georgia story, send the essay (no more than 500 words)
and 300-dpi digital photos by email to mygeorgia@georgiaemc.com
or by mail to the address listed on page 6. A self-addressed, stamped
envelope must be included for photos to be returned. Published essays
pay $100. Georgia Magazine reserves the right to edit submitted pieces.
http://www.ourlittlebigdream.com
Georgia Magazine - January 2021

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