Editors note: The Friends of the Athens-Limestone Public Library will hold its “Literary Lawns, Town and Country” Garden Tour, a self-guided event that benefits the library, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday, June 9. Tickets are available for $15 at Athens-Limestone Public Library, Crawford’s, Pablo’s on Market, Pimentos, Suzanne’s Bakery and Trinity Gifts and Interiors. Guest writer Bebe Gish Shaw has written a series of articles about each garden that will be published leading up to the event.





Suzanne and Chris Paysinger

416 East Washington Street

‘William Faulkner’



When asked what he’d name his “literary lawn” for the purpose of the garden tour, Chris stated unflinchingly, “Oh, that’s easy:  William Faulkner.” 

A history teacher, Chris went on to explain that he loves the Southern gothic exemplified in the writings of Faulkner (1897-1962), who at only 5 feet, 6 inches was a giant among men of letters and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 for his bravely embracing the South’s historic burden, its racial sin and guilt, and the “human heart in conflict with itself,” as Faulkner stated in his acceptance speech.  And like the author did in Oxford, Miss., Chris has lovingly taken on the responsibility of an antebellum, circa 1825 home Athenians call the “Looney House.” Chris says the pun is not lost on his family. 

The home actually even has in its medallion door, two thicknesses of glass loonily showing one color from the inside, a gleaming green, and another from the exterior, a glooming black, mirroring the sunlight filtering through the trees in the morning. And Chris is also quick to describe his lawn as “quintessentially Southern,” noting its mature, indigenous trees, among them—like at Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak—ancient cedars, then thought to protect from yellow fever and malaria, and redbud, dogwood, maple, oak, and hackberry. 

Also noteworthy on this federal style property are the Victorian, gingerbread detailed playhouse built with materials original to the home; the stacked stone walls, made of limestone Chris himself has collected over time from creek beds throughout Limestone County, now blanketed with moss and lichens and ivy; and the gulley carved from runoff rainwater that divides the back yard like the Mason-Dixon Line in this yard of rampant wisteria Chris is “actively fighting,” where a favorite pastime of the neighborhood children is playing Civil War.

— Guest writer, Bebe Gish Shaw, Ph.D., is a professor of English at Athens State University.