Former Swift Home

This property was sold to Judge William Tyre Swift for whom Swift Street was named on October 1, 1872 by C. C. Duncan. The deed specifies that this is the lot where W. T. Swift lives. This house is an outstanding example of the Greek Revival style. It features a full-width recessed porch with square, vernacular Doric columns and a large, molded Greek Revival style door surrounded with a 10 light transom, 5 light sidelights, and paired 2/3 glazed doors. The large size of the door surround indicates a very wide formal hallway. Other features include tall stuccoed masonry chimney shafts and dentil molding under the eaves and large pronounced dentils on the corners under the eaves. Swift’s Southern Specific Tonic was first manufactured in this back yard by Colonel Charles T. Swift, the son of Judge Swift. This tonic, which builds rich red blood in cases of simple iron-deficiency anemia, is still in production today through the SSS Company in Atlanta. The property was sold to Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Nottingham, daughter of W. T. Swift, in October 1903. In 1929 J. Meade Tolleson, Sr. bought the house from the Moore Lumber Company of Americus, made improvements and additions, and used it as the Tolleson family home for forty years. It sold several times before 1975 when Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Meeks bought it, restored it, and sold it to Gary and Linda Deibert in 1988 to become Perry’s first Bed and Breakfast, the Swift Street Inn. The inn opened on January 1, 1989 and remained in business for many years.