(This is the last of a series of stories focusing on 100 years of ownership by one family in the Golladay mansion on Margin Street in Grenada. Built by John Moore for George Golladay around 1850, the house passed down through the years from George Golladay to his daughter, Davidella Golladay Lake and then passed to Davidella’s daughter, Minnie Lake Barbee and after her death passed to her brother, Dr. Golladay Lake, thus ending a direct line of family ownership of about 100 years. The second one hundred years of ownership begins with the Junius Townes family as chronicled in today’s article.)
Daily Sentinel Star
Monday, October 3, 1955
Dr. Golladay Lake, who had achieved prominence in Memphis, Greenville and other places as an outstanding dentist, closed the family home soon after his sister was buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
During the following years of deterioration, the Lake house was forgotten and laid in the dust of its gathering memories, haunted with the ghosts of years of birth and death, daybreak and sunset, war and peace, love and hate. And so it remained until Dr. Lake’s death on July 1, 1953.
Daily Sentinel Star
Wednesday, July 1, 1953
Dr. Golladay Lake, a member of one of the pioneer families of this city, died at a Memphis hospital early this morning following an illness of several months.
Son of the late George and Davidella Golladay Lake, Dr. Lake was born in 1871 in the old Lake home on Margin Street where he spent most of his lifetime. For a number of years he practiced dentistry in Memphis, later making his home with his brothers in New York City.
Dr. Lake was a great lover of nature and spent many hours in the study of wildlife. When he resided in the family home here, his flower gardens were among the most beautiful in the city.
Funeral services will be conducted from Garner Funeral Home Thursday afternoon at 5 o’clock with interment to follow in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
Surviving relatives include several cousins.
(“As the last of the Lakes, Dr. Golladay Lake, left no will, it was generally thought that the property would be in the hands of courts for years. However, the details of the estate were straightened out and the Chancery Court immediately went to work and determined the names of twelve first cousins, all of whom share equally as inheritors.” Daily Sentinel Star, October 5, 1955.)
Grenada County Weekly
Thursday, November 26, 1953
The administrators of the estate of the late Dr. Golladay Lake auctioned off Dr. Lake’s visitor’s card tray and other personal effects in the Lake home on Margin Street Tuesday.
The card tray hasn’t been needed for about 25 years. It was that long ago that Dr. Lake’s sister, Mrs. Minnie Barbee, was murdered. After her death, Dr. Lake moved out into a trailer in the back yard and no more callers were received in the old mansion.
Many buyers and more just lookers were present at the auction. They came at their own risk. At the front door a sign was posted which read: “The Lake Estate is not responsible in any way in case of accident of any nature. You enter at your own risk.”
Grenada Sentinel Star
Monday, October 3, 1955
On March 12, 1954, the name of Townes was added to the family resister, joining those of Golladay, Lake and Barbee. The property was purchased at public auction by Junius L. Townes, Jr., who has restored this showplace to its former dignity and grace. Mr. and Mrs. Townes, their three daughters and son extend wholesome and gracious hospitality to visitors at the mansion.
Thus, a new page in the mansion’s colorful history is written in the annals of time. The home’s respite from loneliness is concluded and the spark of legend ignited one again. The stately white mansion, recording sights and scenes of each yesterday, becomes a moonlit trail to yesteryear.
And how does the restored mansion view the present progressive age? Only time will tell as our offspring gaze in awe and wonderment upon the living monument to a way of life “gone with the wind.”
