Confederate Colonel Theophilus Jackson Smith built Glen Mary as a gift to his wife, Mary Salome Gonder. Before the Civil War, the estate became a major cotton producer in Middle Georgia, and the house is considered by many the finest Greek Revival raised cottage remaining on rural land. During the Civil War, Glen Mary was narrowly spared by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s invading armies and became a hiding place for Confederate Secretary of State Robert Toombs after the Confederates surrendered in 1865. In 1869, Colonel Smith sold Glen Mary to his former adversary, Union General Ethan Allen Hitchcock and his wife, Martha Rind Nicholls Hitchcock. General Hitchcock died there on August 5, 1870. Mrs. Hitchcock ran the estate until her death in 1918, when it descended to her niece. Glen Mary remained the Nicholls family farm until the 1980s, and Preservation America Trust purchased it in 1998 and oversaw a comprehensive restoration to its original appearance.