A magic village

Southern Living, Mar 2000 by Brown, Ben

Suddenly, among the fenced farms and open pastures bisected by I-75 through Middle Georgia, there grows a village. Although it takes the name of the Henderson community that has long claimed a tiny dot on maps of the region, this village is fairly new.

Henderson Village has been open almost two years, offering, so far, 24 guestrooms and fine dining. The setting encourages visitors to imagine themselves in a picturesque Southern town at the turn of the century--only with central airconditioning and satellite TV.

That such a place is here, a mile into rural nowhere west of the interstate, is remarkable enough. But add to that wonder the extreme unlikeliness of its origin in the imagination of a German consumer electronics titan who, as a child, saw a movie he could never forget.

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"I was 9 when the Americans came to my village" just a few months after the end of World War II, says Henderson Village owner Bernhard Schneider. "The American soldiers occupied the hotel that belonged to my aunt. And there was a big ballroom in which they showed their movies. I watched those, and the one I remember most is a love story set in the South. I remember these white houses with porches. And I remember the friendliness of the people.

"It was the first time I ever saw a movie, so it made a big impression on me. And this," says Bernhard, gesturing across the well-tended landscape toward the porticoes of his Middle Georgia fantasyland, "reminds me of those houses and the friendliness of the people."

The 50-year route from postwar Germany to Henderson Village wasn't entirely a straight one. Bernhard and his brother had been investors in Georgia farmland since 1979, when they bought 3,400 acres south of Perry. Bernhard, then head of his family company, began to grow frustrated. "I wanted to be here more," he says. "But you cannot be here more and run a company. So in 19911 quit as CEO and built a house here."

Four years later, almost by accident, the old childhood memories of a makebelieve Southern town began kicking in. A widow who owned a house on the edge of what is now the village approached Bernhard about buying her house. He did. Then, a year later, when neighbors divorced, Bernhard added their home, complete with 5 acres. By the end of 1996, he acquired a nearby house that could be remodeled as a restaurant.

By the time Henderson Village opened quietly in the summer of 1998, there were nine separate buildings, including six old tenant houses moved to the site and lavishly refitted as rustic cottages. There's a pool and bathhouse, a formal garden, and a restaurant. Everything has the spare-no-- expense feel.

"The theory from the beginning," says Stuart MacPherson, general manager, "was to create a unique country resort with historic soul and integrity-a home away from home from a bygone era."

That means, besides the obvious care taken with the gardens and the common areas, fastidious attention to the redesign of the old wooden houses. Craftspeople stripped layers of paint from heart-pine trim and floors. Where rot or termites had invaded, carpenters matched the wood with timber of the same vintage.

Inside, functional antiques decorate each room sparingly to accent the feeling of comfortable spaciousness. Oriental carpets partially cover the restored sheen of the plank flooring. And lighting fixtures and other additions lend a sense of refinement that a planter's wife may have cultivated. Henderson Village, clearly, is a place to be at home. Ben Brown

Henderson Village is located south of Perry, Georgia, 1 mile west of Exit 41 on I-75. Rates: $145-$245, breakfast included. For more information, call toll free 1-888-615-9722.

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A magic village

Southern Living, Mar 2000 by Brown, Ben

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