The Hagood-Mauldin House/Irma Morris Museum of Fine Arts, on Lewis Street in downtown Pickens, was the setting for a Christmas Open House for three hours prior to the start of the Pickens Christmas Parade the evening of Friday, December 6, 2024.

The historic house was the former home of the late Frances Hagood Mauldin and Judge Thomas Joab (T.J.) Mauldin and of her parents, James Earle Hagood and Esther Benson Hagood. The original house was built about 1856 in Old Pickens Courthouse and moved to its current location and reconstructed after the Pickens District was divided and Pickens and Oconee Counties were formed in 1868. Frances Hagood Mauldin founded the Fort Prince George Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and meetings were once held at the home.

After the death of Frances Hagood Mauldin in 1954, 23 years after the death of her husband, the house was sold to, and became home to, Irma Hendricks Morris, and, upon Morris’ death, the house was given to the Pickens County Historical Society in 1987. The Hagood-Mauldin House is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Christmas Open House event on December 6 was hosted by the Pickens County Historical Society and the Pickens County 250 Committee. Carolyn Nations, Chair of the Pickens County 250 Committee, decorated the house for Christmas.

Santa Claus greeted visitors in his sleigh, in the front yard. Docents gave tours of the house. Fort Prince George DAR members Dr. Marianne Holland and Carolyn Yarborough provided music, Holland playing the piano and Yarborough singing, in the house’s music room. Children from Eastside Baptist Church in Liberty and from Smith Chapel Church in Pickens sang Christmas songs in the house’s living room.

Below, view 52 photographs by The Pickens County Chronicle of the Christmas Open House at the Hagood-Mauldin House.