Welcome to Shankle House
A beautiful nineteenth-century historic home furnished with period antiques and artifacts in downtown Commerce, Ga. Shankle House is a spacious but cozy Southern mansion with a unique history, and it is now available for your next gathering or celebration.
The rental space is approximately 2,000 square feet. This includes the kitchen, the "bar room" (a room off the kitchen recommended for setting up a bar or food table), the dining room, the pink parlor room, the blue parlor room, a large open hallway, two bathrooms, the wraparound porch, and the front and back yards.
History
Listed on the National Historic Registry, the Seaborn M. Shankle house is thought to be the oldest building in Commerce, Ga. The original structure was built by Eli Shankle, one of the first pioneers of the area which at the time was inhabited by Creek Indians and conveniently located along trading routes. He established a trading post and with his wife Rebecca built a two-room cabin around 1843. In the mid-1870s, their son Seaborn Shankle added the larger Italianate-influenced house around the existing structure. Both the original cabin and the 19th-century addition comprise the existing house you see today.
Eli, Rebecca, and some of their descendants, including Seaborn and his wife, are buried in the small 19thc family cemetery located on the property. Their graves still stand surrounded by a cast-iron Victorian fence.
Shankle House is also known for being the childhood home of the author Olive Ann Burns, famous for her novel Cold Sassy Tree, which she based on characters and stories from her family’s time living there.
Meet the owner
Molly Baroco was born in Alabama, grew up in Atlanta, and attended the University of Georgia, where she made life-long friends and received a BFA. She has a great interest in art, antiques, history, and old houses. It’s no wonder she fell in love with Shankle House the first time she saw it!
