An exquisite example of Victorian Aesthetic architecture, the Foster-Thomason-Miller House in Madison, Georgia, was once considered the most elegant country home in the state. In a tragic turn of events, the property was abandoned in 2001 following a devastating fire and has lain empty ever since. Captured by photographer Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast, uncover the secrets of this achingly beautiful estate and tour its lavish interiors before and after the blaze. 

Shown here before the fire, the five-bedroom was built in 1883 for Legare H. Foster, a young ambitious man who inherited a tidy fortune. Captivated by Aestheticism – a European art movement that prized beauty above all else – Foster snapped up a plot of land on Madison's Main Street in 1882 and set about creating the ultimate home based on this philosophy.

Foster drew much of his inspiration from a lecture on 'The House Beautiful' that was delivered by Irish literary great Oscar Wilde in Atlanta earlier in 1882. One of the movement's leading lights, Wilde was an advocate of art for art's sake, the idea that art need only be beautiful, and shouldn't be judged on anything other than its aesthetic qualities.

Foster hired master craftsman Daniel Townes to design the house, which was erected on the foundations of the Georgia Female College. The pioneering institution was destroyed by fire in 1880. The young visionary spared no expense on the property's numerous decorative features and upon completion, the house was regarded as one of the most elegant in Georgia.

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Measuring nearly 6,000 square feet, architect Townes' design blends Victorian Aestheticism with Queen Anne, Gothic Revival and Italianate styles. From the entrance hall (pictured) to the bedrooms, the home incorporates many of the tenets espoused by Wilde. Think delicate floral motifs stencilled on the ceilings, ornately carved cabinets, dazzling etched glass, gold-plated details and the finest ceramic tiling imaginable.

These decorative elements abound in the parlour, which would have served as the principal room for entertaining guests. Decking out the sumptuous interiors certainly didn't come cheap, and having ploughed his entire fortune into the property, Foster ended up going bankrupt and was forced to sell the stunning house in 1889.

Foster's beloved trophy home passed to Robert Usher Thomason, who altered the colour scheme of the interiors, including the dining room (pictured), and had the exterior repainted. Indoor plumbing and electricity were installed in 1916, the year of Thomason's death, and the house remained in his family's possession until the late 1970s.

In 1978, the house was sold to Richard and Marcia Miller (hence the property's triple-barrelled name), who embarked on an extensive renovation. The Millers spent several years restoring the property to its former glory, carefully filling their home with antique furniture and fittings pertaining to the Aesthetic Movement. This image shows the revamped library.

The Millers' sensitive restoration was lauded by experts and in 1986 the couple bagged a prestigious award from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation for their meticulous project. A perfect recreation of the original, the charming master bedroom is pictured here before the blaze.

Tragedy struck in 2001 when the aforementioned fire gutted the kitchen and inflicted severe smoke and water damage on the rest of the property. Not long after the blaze, the Millers, who must have been absolutely distraught, sold the property to prominent Kansas businessman Von Friesen and his wife Christy.

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The Friesens tried and failed to turn the house into a bed and breakfast and entered into a protracted battle with the local mayor, City Council and community over plans for a large housing development on the grounds of the heritage property. All the while, the house remained empty and in a sorry state of disrepair.

The fire-damaged exterior and interiors of the property were captured recently by photographer Leland Kent and feature on his Abandoned Southeast website. As you can see from this image of the entrance hall, the house has seen much better days, but many of the original features remain, albeit not in the best of shape.

Debris scatters the floors and the walls are peeling, but the original staircase in fine walnut is intact, and unless damp has got to it shouldn't be too much of a challenge to revive and restore. Note the ornate baluster at the bottom of the staircase and the fancy gilded frame on the wall.

Moving into the parlour, the imposing fireplace with its beautifully carved wooden surround and Victorian tiles is also more than salvageable, but the ceiling will no doubt require quite a bit of elbow grease to make right, with even more work necessary to recreate the gorgeous stencilled design.

The dainty floral and leaf motifs that once decorated the ceiling have vanished and a gaping hole has opened up, which is peeling like no tomorrow. The room's sumptuous yellow colour scheme is now a smokey brown, and the parquet flooring is positively crying out for a good sanding and polishing.

In the once-grand dining room, the hardwood flooring is dusty and worn but it looks like it wouldn't take too much effort to revitalise. Remarkably, the room's light fitting remains intact unlike its counterpart in the parlour, and the fireplace, which incidentally is one of eight in the house, is in surprisingly good order to boot.

This close-up of the mantel shows the tiles in all their splendour. The ceramic beauties were produced by famed English pottery factory Minton, and illustrate the four Seasons poems by Scottish author James Thomson. Interestingly, Oscar Wilde included the poems in a list of 'books not to read at all', albeit with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

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Fortunately, the wonderful stencilled motif design has survived on part of the dining room ceiling, making the renovator's job that little bit easier as they won't have to rely solely on old images of the design to recreate it.

The library is in remarkably decent shape too under the circumstances. The ceiling is in even better condition, featuring a stunning painted fresco that appears to simply require a deep clean. The smoke and water damage seem markedly less severe in this room, which also has a grand fireplace with a green tiled surround.

In fact, the room's green colour scheme is still evident and its built-in cabinets, made from the highest quality walnut like the other wooden fittings in the house, look to be undamaged and ready to be packed with books again.

Upstairs, the landing and hallway don't look to have fared as well as some of the spaces downstairs. Abandoned for almost two decades, the walls and ceilings, in particular, are falling apart here and in places will need to be completely rebuilt.

Peeling and scorched, the walls in this bedroom bore the brunt of the fire too. The once-elegant windows, which are missing their panes, have been boarded up, however, it's not hard to imagine how regal this room must have once looked, with its rich teal walls and coiffured ceiling.

The house has two bathrooms, the first of which doesn't look very inviting in its current state. Nevertheless, the toilet, sinks and window frames, along with the shutters, are in relatively good shape, having escaped the worst of the flames.

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Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the smaller second bathroom. The fire looks to have taken hold in a big way in this room, which will need a comprehensive overhaul to get it back to its heyday glory.

There's no mistaking where the fire took hold. A breathtakingly dramatic scene, the kitchen is still standing despite its extreme charring, though the cabinetry and other wooden features are likely to need replacing in their entirety.

Despite the evident damage, some of the embellishments have stayed more or less intact and shouldn't be too much of a nightmare to reproduce authentically, though the job will probably necessitate the hiring of super-skilled cabinet makers and carpenters. Still, there's something hauntingly beautiful about that ornate blackened woodwork.

With no plans for renovation, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation put the property on its 2018 'Places in Peril' list, which raised the profile of the home and attracted the attention of conservationists. The Friesens also offered to sell the house to the non-profit Madison-Morgan Conservancy, a proposition that the Georgia organisation duly accepted.

Following this, the Madison-Morgan Conservancy carried out work to stabilise the home's structure to get it ready to sell on to a private buyer. The property was listed on the condition that the new owner restored the exterior and interiors to an exacting standard.

The house was listed in 2018 with Lewis & Redwine for £359,000 ($440k). After eight months on the market, the fixer-upper was bought by David and Elizabeth Minnix, a conservation-minded couple from Atlanta. David Minnix's great-great-grandmother was a student at Georgia Female College, the foundations of which still remain beneath the house.

The conservation enthusiasts certainly have their work cut out. Thankfully, the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is eligible for generous tax reliefs and other financial incentives, which should help drive down the duo's costs significantly. While the road to renovation is likely to be long, we can't wait to see this architectural gem reborn from the ashes.

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