Joseph Robert Shields built the present main residence when he returned from serving in the War Between the States. Before leaving for the war, he purchased 96 acres of land from his father, James Shields. Today, descendents of Joseph Robert Shields live in the main residence; therefore it is not a part of the National Historic District.
The two-story pine clapboard house is set back from a two lane highway (Ethridge Road), across the road from tin-roofed farm buildings. The house is surrounded with magnolias and oaks, some planted by the Shields around 1870. The highway today divides the central cluster of buildings, with the east side devoted to the needs of the Shields and Ethridge families, and the west side related to farm operations. Look to the east and imagine the farm before its expansion in the 20th century. Look to the west and view buildings constructed after Ira Ethridge took over management of the farm. Imagine the highway as it was in before the 1940s, a dirt road.
When Susan Ella Shields Ethridge and her husband, Ira, came to live at the home place in 1897 to care for the aged Joseph Robert Shields, the house had a one-story shed front. The home place was a “plantation plain” house, like many country houses in Georgia and the Carolinas. The house had four rooms in the body of the house and two shed rooms behind. After Joseph Robert Shields death in 1909, the place became known as the “Ethridge place” and Ira Ethridge began the remodeling of the old Shields home place. The shed porch was replaced with four 15 inch square columns of stuccoed finish. A cantilevered balcony was then added, and later, screened. Ethridge also installed an iron fence around the yard in 1921, which was bought at a sale when the fence was removed from Rabun County courthouse square.
As you look at the exterior of the house, imagine the original windows: nine-over-nines. The upstairs windows remain six-over-sixes. Notice the three chimneys that date to the original construction. Originally the main dwelling was heated with open wood fires. Coal or wood stoves were later used, and today the newest addition is heated by electricity. Originally, a log house kitchen was placed forty feet from the side of the main dwelling. The kitchen was moved in 1910 to another place on the farm place.
Ira Ethridge made many modifications through the years to accommodate modern living, adding a dining room and kitchen (built to the rear), a sunroom, and a lattice porch. Reminders of the long history of the oldest rooms in the main residence are the 8 foot ceilings, the original pine boards of random width (5 to 11 inches), handcrafted pine mantles, doors of heart pine, and the double two-paneled front door framed by a transom and sidelights.
The exterior of the main residence suggests a story of 200 years of change, as well as the continuity of the “Ethridge place.”