The first lady of Lake Claire

By Teri Stewart | 0:00:57

When former Ga. Gov. John Gordon’s Southerland estate – which used to occupy much of what’s now the Lake Claire neighborhood – went up for public auction in 1906, his widow Fannie was the highest bidder.

Transcript of the story

Gen. Gordon died in 1904, and of course that’s the statue of him on the horse outside the state capitol. He and Fannie are both buried at Oakland Cemetery, right next to the confederate section. Two years after his death in 1906 creditors gained possession of Southerland, which is what the Gordon estate was called, and it was publicly auctioned off at the old Decatur courthouse at the back steps, because the back steps used to in fact be the front steps. Fannie Gordon was the highest bidder and managed to save the property for $8,700. Fannie Gordon was the one who actually started the Southerland Realty Company, and she is the one who created the neighborhood of Lake Claire and started to sell off land for housing and named the different streets of Lake Claire. So she’s actually the first lady of Lake Claire.