Poet Conrad Aiken's historic childhood home has been renovated, on the market for $4.9 million

A $2.5 million renovation has filled the house where Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Conrad Aiken once lived at 228 E. Oglethorpe Ave. with light. Now that it’s hit the market at $4.9 million, this historic home is headed for a bright future that doesn’t overlook its haunted past.

“There's no denying the history of the house,” Seabolt Real Estate listing agent Staci Donegan said. “There’s a marker out front clearly identifying this as the Conrad Aiken Home. It’s a named home, which to me, makes it very special. Someone special lived here.”

To understand the significance of the transformation of this stunning three-story brick row house, we must understand its dark history. In 1901, Dr. William Aiken shot his wife, Anna Potter Aiken, before turning the gun on himself. Startled by the commotion, 11-year-old Conrad Aiken discovered the scene and ran to the police. After years of trying to describe this trauma, Aiken published “The Room,” a poem many consider his way of coming to terms with a memory he described as a “struggle of darkness against darkness.”

After his parents' deaths, Aiken was sent to live with relatives in Massachusetts. Despite—or perhaps because of—the murder-suicide, Aiken became a prolific writer and poet laureate of the United States. Most of his work featured symbolism, psychological analysis and themes of darkness, an attempt to reconcile the horrors of his childhood and find light in his future. Whether he found that peace or not, Aiken returned to Savannah as an adult and lived next door to his childhood home until his death in 1973.

“I think people really embrace the fact that we have the history that we do because here in the state of Georgia, it's very rare to still have homes that weren't burned during the Civil War,” Donegan said. “So, you move to a historic city and, gosh—you embrace the history.”

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Shining light into the dark spaces

Although the tragic deaths certainly cast a shadow, the recent renovations have become a beacon of hope. The southern-facing structure allows all-day sunlight throughout the front and back of the home. Several floor-to-ceiling windows maximize the amount of natural light in nearly every room. This gives the home luminosity, and the recent renovations boost that quality to the next level.

“The current homeowners added skylights, which also adds another component of natural light because a lot of our homes in Savannah are townhouses, so you're not going to have windows on the east or west side of your house because you have a neighbor connected to you,” Donegan said.

With light pouring in from all angles, the home has always had the potential to be a glowing gem in Savannah’s National Historic Landmark District. Now, with a few changes and additions, it’s really started to shine.

These changes are encompassed in a 2,000-square-foot addition, featuring a new main kitchen, primary suite, and second kitchen on the garden level. This update also introduced an elevator, improving accessibility and accommodating the recent resurgence of multigenerational living.

While these additions usher in a fresh chapter for this historic building, plenty of original features remain. Among these features is a cooking fireplace in the parlor level, where residents could hang a kettle from a metal arm and boil water before this level got its own kitchen. The oak and pine flooring are also original, consisting of planks that run from the beginning of the original house to the end of the new addition.

There are nuggets of history hidden throughout the home, and they’re all tied together by the open floorplan. While most entryways in Savannah townhomes are divided by a straight staircase, the winding staircase in the Conrad Aiken Home opens the foyer to more light from the panel of windows around the front door.

The rooms are also spacious, opening a world of possibilities for future homeowners. Just about any room can become just about anything, and it’s all thanks to a little dose of history.

“The floorplans on these historic homes were so simple when they were built that you can use the front parlor for whatever you like. You could use the back parlor for whatever you like,” Donegan explained. “It’s the historic mixed with the contemporary, and it makes it easier for a family to move into this house without making too many sacrifices.”

Multiple timelines also overlap in the stairway between the garden and parlor levels. The ornate black Newel post came from a hitching post that once sat outside the Aiken Home, a patchwork artifact that blends the days of yore and the days ahead.

And history certainly isn’t limited to four walls, especially here. The front door is just a stone’s throw from Colonial Park Cemetery, where more than 9,000 graves recount the bigger story that helped Savannah become the welcoming community it is today.

“I think everybody wants to move to a place where they will be accepted and find their people,” Donegan said. “Savannah has so much to offer and has such diversity that whatever you're looking for, I think there's an aspect of Savannah that will give it to you.”

Savannah has undergone many changes since that fateful day 122 years ago, and the Aiken Home has, too. Now, all it needs is a new owner to nurture its incandescent future.

After all, a house isn’t a home until it has a loving family to give it life.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Poet Conrad Aiken Savannah ga childhood home on market for $4.9 million