The View From Sterling Bluff
We are offering members of the Richmond Hill Historical Society the opportunity to purchase the out-of-print book, The View From Sterling Bluff for a special price of $15. Not yet a member or need to renew your membership? Click here: Membership
Book can be picked up at the Richmond Hill History Museum or shipped. For shipping, additional cost must be added here.
Excerpts:
"Richmond Hill, Georgia, won a race with China, Germany, Poland and a host of other places without ever know it was in a race. It was to this little whistle-stop town that the great Henry Ford would commit himself, his resources, and his ingenuity."
"Over a century ago men were writing with awe about the ancient oaks at Richmond Plantation What would they say now that thirteen additional decades have been added to those majestic trees? The natural beauty here has but one rival- the historical beauty."
"Oglethorpe had lofty aspirations for the new colony. Initially he barred slavery, rum and lawyers from Georgia, seeing all three a contrary to the best interests of the new English settlement."
"Fort McAllister was not one of the most beautiful forts in the Confederacy... yet it was precisely the right concept. The sandy banks of the fort were blasted again an again by federal gunboats only to settle back into place so that at night only a little work would make the ramparts as good as new."
"Think of it. Here was a man who could have built a personal retreat anywhere on the face of the earth and he chose Ways Station!"
"The vision of Ford was to see huge fields of goldenrod glistening in the sun (dispatching tons of its allergic pollen into the winds) and great American combines rumbling up and down the rows harvesting the nation's next rubber crop."
"The Fords loved Richmond Hill because of the privacy it provided and because they were seen differently by the people who lived there. They were not 'locked in' at Richmond Hill as they were elsewhere, Mrs. Ford once commented."
"Though familiar with virtually all corners of the world, Ghaith Pharaon saw the beauty and tranquility in Sterling Bluff that so intrigued Henry and Clary Ford. In it Pharaon also saw the ultimate retreat, one offering beauty, splendor and serenity."