Spring blooms at LaGrange’s sweeping Hills & Dales Estate

LaGRANGE, Ga. - Which comes first … the house or the garden? In most cases, it’s the house. But not at one sweeping Georgia estate, where the blooming boxwoods date back more than 180 years.

This morning on Good Day Atlanta, we spent some time exploring Hills & Dales Estate, the immaculately-preserved home and gardens located in LaGrange. The story of the property dates back to the mid-1800s, when a woman named Sarah Ferrell designed and planted six terraced gardens in LaGrange, carefully maintaining them and allowing her neighbors the opportunity to roam at will.

One of those neighbors was a boy named Fuller E. Callaway — and as an adult in 1911, the textile manufacturer purchased the property with his wife, Ida, and decided to build a family home there. That 13,000-square-foot home was completed in 1916, designed by architects Neel Reid & Hal Hentz to overlook and complement the gardens. 

The Callaway family has preserved the home and gardens ever since (Alice Hand Callaway spent more than 60 years tending to her home and gardens before passing away in 1998), opening the property to the public for tours and hosting events including a popular annual Mother’s Day picnic. House tours are currently available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Hills & Dales Estate is located at 1916 Hills and Dales Drive in LaGrange; house and garden admission is $25 for adults (free for children 7 and younger) and garden-only admission is $10 for adults. For more information on visiting, click here. And click the video player in this article to check out our morning exploring this true Georgia gem!