Tasteful Friends: Ben Affleck’s Georgia Mansion

Please don't shit on Ben's house. He's already a divorced, depressive alcoholic.

Least let him have his mansion. Not that it seems to bring the alcoholic in him happiness.

snakes and alligators! didn't he buy this during jlo?

Thanks, not interested.

His Taste is in his ass

A plantation home built in 2000? How truly tacky.

Him buying that property is a prime example of someone with far more money than brains. It's literally in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It's 35 miles from Savannah on 2 lane roads, so a quick run into town for shopping is not something you're going to do often. Some websites claim it's on a private island. It's on a private preserve they call "Hampton Island", but the property is 20 miles inland from the coast. The closest town is the tiny little village of Riceboro, population 768. If you want absolute quiet (except for the sounds of frogs, bobcats, and billions of crickets) it's the place for you.

LOL @ "The Oyster House." It's the slaves' quarters.

Why did he buy this? Do either Jennifer Garner or he have ties to Georgia?

[quote} Do either Jennifer Garner or he have ties to Georgia?

As a matter of fact it was after he married her that he finally put it up for sale. I don't think she was fond of the solitude that place provided. I remember when he bought the place he was said to love the coastal Georgia area.

.....

Thank you, R9 and R10.

No one should pay $7 million for a house in the middle of nowhere GA. Doubly bad taste to buy a plantation style house - when you are trying to escape your ancestors slave-owning past.

Oddly there was also a story today in NY Post about a house owned by Afflecks grandfather. Extravagant place in upstate NY. Didn’t know Affleck came form a lot of money. Less impressed now,

R12 exactly. How many prospective buyers did he expect to find when he wanted to unload it?

Hampton Island...

Apparently Ben Affleck owns two homes in Hampton Island, and was part of the allure that helped put place on map initially.

Good God that Times article is laughable with its inaccuracies. Whoever wrote it obviously did no fact checking. The preserve IS NOT on a barrier island and IS NOT off the coast of Georgia. It's a plot of land in the middle of the woods.

Slave mansion. Only a sicko would want this.

[quote] was part of the allure that helped put place on map initially

?

AD has better quality photos.

[quote] Slave mansion.

Slave mansion? The place was built 20 years ago.

R18

Did you not read linked article?

"One of the first buyers to sign up was Affleck, who helped Hampton Island make national news in 2003 when he was seen nearby with then-fiance Jennifer Lopez. Locals speculated the pair was planning an island wedding."

The only reason it's technically an "island" is because the property is surrounded by creeks and a river. There is not one inch of ocean front property anywhere to be found there.

I love it more than life itself!

Swamp mansions are the best mansions.

[quote] Slave mansion. Only a sicko would want this.

I didn’t realize he was white.

Property has been used as a filming location for several projects.

For the record calling some place the "big house" is as antebellum south as one can get. Da Big House is where massa and his family lived on the plantation.

Where's Mary Ann Mobley when you need her?

This confirms his alcoholism dates back to at least 2003.

I remember when Jennifer and Ben were in Savannah. (I'm from Savannah) I was in high school, this was around 2003/2004. I just remember thinking what are they doing here? I couldn't believe they were here in town, I remember they went to a McDonald's on white bluff road, across the street from the oglethorpe mall, and they had to turn around and go back to the window because someone got their order wrong.

It was on the local news and E!news I remember. And it was right up the street from where I was living at the time. I was also surprised he bought a has near Savannah, I didn't know if he had ties to here or not. But I do get why he would want a place in coastal Georgia, it's beautiful here. Sandra Bullock also had s house out on tybee island and so did other celebrities.

Savannah always has celebrities in and out of here, especially because of the Savannah film festival we have. But I don't think Ben has any personal ties to this part of the south though. Not that I know of. Or maybe because of his families past there's something to it.

He fell in love with the area when shooting a movie there a few years earlier.

I think it was "forces of nature" I remember him shooting that here with Sandra Bullock.

He would have been much better off putting all those millions of dollars into a fabulous Savannah historic district mansion. Those places fetch top dollar and sell like hotcakes.

Paula Deen also lives here. She lives out on Wilmington island. Right around the corner from my middle school.

Another beautiful upscale area.

He's afraid he'll blackout and take a tumble down those treacherous steps.

Must have a huge wino cellar.

I'd say Savannah and Charleston are probably the very best of the south in terms of the setting and how the cities look.

Coastal Georgia is stunningly beautiful, just one of the reasons I can't leave here. It's also very peaceful and quiet and there's plenty of water and history here. You can feel the past. I don't like our backwards governor in Georgia, but everything else is worth it.

r33 Do you have her number?

I like the slave quarters better than the house but that may be my blood calling to me.

R37 I believe Paula is trying to sell one of her homes now. She's trying to sell what is believed to be a 28,000 sq ft mansion for $12.5 million several years ago with no luck.

I think the price has been cut in half now. If it's still on the market. I don't see her selling a house for that much, not in savannah at least. That's the same house Oprah and Gayle came to visit her in when they came to Savannah to film an episode of Oprah's next chapter. They spent the night at her estate and everything.

But she can't seem to sell the house for some reason. I believe it's the price she's asking. She's not going to get that in savannah just because she's Paula Deen. That's never gonna happen.

I like it. I just can't think of any reason to move to Georgia.

As for you referring to this as a slave house, I don't know what weird fantasy you're sharing. It's not an old house.

Georgia isn't for everyone.

Theres a huge art scene in Savannah and there's also the SCAD university which attracts Hollywood A-Listers every year. Savannah is one of the more liberal parts of Georgia.

Isn't he the one who payed like 40 million dollars for a house in Brooklyn Heights, the most ever paid for a home there? This was just a couple of years ago.

If it was him WTF? How did he become so rich. He's not like some kind of super star.

Duh R20. But it’s modeled after a plantation. I don’t know why anyone would want a house that’s modeled after something like that. It’s not “charming”. What’s next? The Fuhrer’s bunker?

He produces and directs in addition to acting, r43.

Ben Affleck is an A-List Movie Star. What are you talking about?R43

I attribute Ben's success to his committment to going to church.

[quote] Isn't he the one who payed like 40 million dollars for a house in Brooklyn Heights, the most ever paid for a home there?

I believe his buddy Matt Damon was considering buying that house but ended up buying a penthouse in Brooklyn,

He is a descendant of slave-owners.

He is a descendant of slave-owners.

But is he a descent of slave owners?

R51 yes he's WASP.

Many slave owners where of French or Irish descent; so though white, they were hardly Protestant.

Where?

Large parts of the south especially along cost only became livable for many with arrival and spread of modern air conditioning .

AC meant you could stay indoors in cool less moist conditions but also shut the windows to keep those plagues of mosquitoes out.

[quote] yes he's WASP.

I didn’t realize he was white.

And this douche is a sad sack drunk? What a POS cunt.

Just a bunch of bros playing poker.....

The Irish are garbage people. Most of the people who did the lynching in the south were Irish. Protestants too. But the Irish seemed to have had a special hatred of black people.

Just look at the talking heads on fox news and talk radio. Mostly Irish.

Fuck them.

for being a modern interpretation it doesn't seem like a bad house. let us ignore, for the moment, the cultural baggage of pretending you live in the big house, since most of the Tasteful Friends posts put forward are the same ethos---large house that one would have needed a lot of money and servants (thus paid, or unpaid slaves of some kind or other) to keep the home in proper condition and the residents in the state that they believe they are due.

a lot of people here are in denial if they disclaim this house's style, yet still promote huge mansions of the North East. slavery comes in many forms, and at heart a big home like that includes certain social arrangements that are based on Master/Slave relations. just in de facto slavery, as opposed to de jure, we nominally have some choice over our masters.

too bad to hear about the murals. why buy a home like that and take out all of the humanizing elements? they could have covered them over instead of obliterating them.

Nobody is commenting on the fact that he paid some frau to come in and shit all over the faux-historic interior treatments that were the only thing keeping a thin residue of tastefulness on the whole thing? Hilarious.

R43

He has had his share of troubles of late, but Ben Affleck is still a major A-List Hollywood star, and major big swinging dick in the industry.

[quote] The Wasp were problematic too

In addition to the mosquitoes?

R63 in addition to all of the other problematic racist white assholes in the south, then and now.

I mean, they did give us that asshole in the white house after all.

I'll bet he's hung like a HORSE!

I love the bunk house.

The fantasy of hosting all of your friends is probably best left a fantasy though.

It reminds me of my parents house in South Carolina. Very “Garden and Gun”.

I bet Jennifer Garner played out her Antebellum fantasies here

R59

Well if you're going to shit or hate on others, it usually are those who are beneath you somehow. Poor white trash Irish who most other southerners considered in same category as coloured people could at least hold one thing over blacks; they had white skin....

This was true in other areas of USA as well. The Draft Riots of New York City largely turned into a race riot as Irish immigrants settled scores with blacks. Not because the latter had done anything to harm former, but blacks and lower class Irish were in direct competition for jobs and other things.

The white Protestant elite of NYC favored blacks both before and after the riots. That group largely had no use for the Irish and they knew it, so there was that as well.

It is no accident that as the Irish would soon come to dominate politics in New York, Chicago, Boston, and other areas they instituted various actions that basically discriminated against blacks. The Irish had something on their side; huge birth numbers along with immigration that eventually eclipsed white Protestants. Irish would use those numbers to solidify voting blocks that put their people in charge.

When Bieber croons"Sorry" I could believe it. When Sheeran rasps out "The Shape Of You", I didn't buy a word of it.

R69 And there you have it. It was the trash Irish that gave us Trump. They are pure trash.

Who are you calling trash?

I'd like to see what the interior originally looked like, it is too white now and a bit sterile. Pity because otherwise I like it. The exterior is .... odd. Not ugly by any stretch, but something off about it, very strange the way the steps go up to the second floor like that. Altogether it is a bit less than the sum of its parts, at least after its been blandified inside

people want out of New York. It might sell, if there is a quality hospital near by.

The old style plantation homes were constructed as to allow a maximum amount of air to flow through the house in the hot months to keep the interiors as dry as possible. That's why the windows in these homes are so large. Many old plantation homes had windows that went all the way to the floor and when raised would allow a person to walk through onto an upper level veranda, or raised on the ground level to allow water from a storm surge to flow through without destroying the house. This house is simply a faux plantation style imitation.

Now let's discuss all the plantations in the north prior to the Civil War. Or, as usual, will there either be stone cold silence or the the claims of "that's all lies"? The whole of the eastern half of the US has some history of slavery, only because much of the western half was still inhospitable wilderness through the 18th century.

[quote] Most Northern states abolished slavery before the Civil War. But recent excavations show that during the late 1700s and early 1800s, many of what later came to be called manors and landed estates were full-fledged plantations that held African-American slaves under conditions similar to those in the South. "Historians are stunned by some of the evidence," said Cheryl LaRoche, a historical archaeologist at the University of Maryland. "The popular notion is that slavery in the North consisted of two or three household servants, but there is growing evidence that there were slaveholding plantations," she said. "It's hard to believe that such a significant and pervasive part of the past could be so completely erased from our history." Near Salem, Mass., archaeologists have excavated the ruins of a 13,000-acre plantation that produced grain, horses, barrel staves and dried meat. The owner, Samuel Browne, traded those goods for molasses and rum from the Caribbean. The graveyard shows at least 100 African-Americans were enslaved there from 1718 to 1780. At Shelter Island on New York's Long Island, archaeologists have spent several years peeling open the grounds of present-day Sylvester Manor to reveal the traces of an 8,000-acre plantation that provisioned two sugar plantations in Barbados and made heavy use of African slave labor. During the late 1600s, at least 20 slaves there served as carpenters, blacksmiths, domestics and field hands. "America was a slaveholding country — North and South," said LaRoche. "Over the years, that reality has been lost, stolen or just strayed from the history books."

Everything being said about this property is a stretch of the truth. It’s not “coastal” Georgia. It’s not an island. It’s a contemporary reproduction. It doesn’t seem like he ever lived there.

What it sounds like, to me, is that he was conned into buying the place as an investment property and now he wants to unload the unprofitable behemoth.

He never lived there full time, but he did spend a good bit of time there before he married Jennifer Garner. I remember reading that she preferred to spend their time away up north (seems like it was either Vermont or New Hampshire). But until they married Ben was there quite a bit. People spotted him out and about at stores in Riceboro on multiple occasions, especially the hardware store, and he was said to be quite friendly with some of the other property owners on the preserve.

If you can get in a boat behind your house, ride down the river, and be at the ocean in 30 minutes...it's coastal.

It's 12 miles from the ocean.

[quote] If you can get in a boat behind your house, ride down the river, and be at the ocean in 30 minutes...it's coastal.

It's near the coast, not on the coast. It's still laughable at all the misinformation from the media about this place. The stupid New York Times didn't even have the wherewithal to check the facts before they posted their laughable article claiming the house was on a barrier island off the coast of Georgia. But then I'm sure they thought saying that sounded a lot better than saying "the property is located way out in the woods in the middle of nowhere, miles from the coast". And even more laughable is the "island" designation. Like I said before, it's only technically an island because it's surrounded by creeks and a river. Trust me if you went there the last thing you'd ever think is that "I'm on an island". LOL

LOL at Fat Ben scarfing shrimp "fresh-off-the-dock."

I'd think I'm in a swamp!

Yep, it is a swamp mansion. It is not even "inter-coastal waterway" adjacent.

I bet most white American are descednants of slave owners, certainly whites in the South. It doesn't mean you have some affinity for the region or desire to own a swamp mansion.

Just because there are creeks and a river does not mean the property is swampy, and it's not. It's not the Okefenokee for pete's sake.

R84, that’s a stretch. A long stretchy stretch. Descendants of slave owners is a tiny minority of white Americans. Even descendants of slaves is a much larger number and black people are still 13%.

[quote] I bet most white American are descednants of slave owners, certainly whites in the South

A large percentage of white people in the south are not from there or even have ancestors from there. And if most people from all over the country looked closely at what some of their ancestors got up to they'd probably be very shocked & embarrassed.

But you know how it is. Many white people who consider themselves liberals without a bigoted bone in their bodies still have to have someone to hate, so the obvious choice is white southerners, because in their ignorant minds we're all descendants of slave owners who are mad that we can't own slaves now.

And for the record, Abraham Lincoln had no love for slaves. He wanted the end the practice and ship all of them out of the country as he felt they would never be able to fit into white society.

"island" is because the property is surrounded by creeks and a river."

r22, we in the south call that a swamp ;-)

It sounds like the surrounding waters may be moving faster than in a proper swamp, but it is still going to be wall to wall bugs and reptiles.

[quote] [R22], we in the south call that a swamp ;-)

No, we don't. I am approximately 70 miles from that property right now and have lived in the south all my life. Solid dry ground with a nearby creek or river does not a swamp make. If that was the case most everyone in the US would live in a swamp. People don't build mansions in swamps.

Manhattan is surrounded by rivers. When was the last time you heard anyone call it a swamp?

This is what we in the south call a swamp.

Manhattan is a swamp.

Also DC.

Man this quarantine really has you queens arguing over the most irrelevant shit!

Ben is a most irrelevant shit. But this is fun.

Cool house. Too much $$$ for the location.

Manhattan WAS a swamp, hundreds of years ago. Clearly some of you have no idea what a swamp is.

Celebrities started paying more attention to rural coastal Georgia after John Kennedy Jr's wedding at the tiny little First African Baptist Church on Cumberland Island, Ga.. The area suddenly became all the rage for some of the NYC and Hollywood elites looking to get away from all the hubbub.

The windows on the front...above and below...need the same treatment.

Throws the look off at the moment.

R93

This is nothing, don't get people from the south started about making corn bread with sugar.

Sweet cornbread is definitely a thing.

Sweet cornbread is a soul food thing.

And it is damn good too! I make a sweet cornbread with honey. Mmm mmm good!

It's biscuit!

No sugar in cornbread. That’s for Yankees.

Sweet cornbread is a cake,NOT cornbread . The only time in my life I was served sweet cornbread was by a lady who originally came from Maryland . Before that ,I never tasted it in my life and I grew up eating cornbread . That being said , I do like it , but nothing beats cornbread with bacon crumbled in it and fried before baking in a cast iron pan coated with bacon grease !

Yeah, sweet cornbread is a cake. Do people make sweet cornbread in an iron skillet?

Yes, R106. And it's not a cake. It's cornbread that is sweetened.

Them's fighting words, R107.

Trump is German and Scottish.

I also love a good Mexican cornbread.

Q: Why wasn’t Jesus born in Ireland?

A: Because God couldn’t find three wise men or a virgin.

[quote]I didn’t realize he was white.

What the fuck else would he be?

I'd be afraid of alligators

r113

I'd be afraid of the kategators

R109 Trump has no real history in America to speak of. He isn't what I would call a foundational American. Meaning his family wasn't here in the early 1600s, nor did they fight in the American revolutionary war or any American wars or wars America has been involved in.

His grandfather came here in the mid 1880s when America was already established, and grifted his way to wealth success, contributing nothing to society, but taking everything selfishly for himself and he only.

Yeah, Trump is Scottish and German, but hes not apart of Americas original Scottish/German blood line. And now he and his family along with the Kushner's are destroying a country they had nothing to do with helping to found.

This makes me hate them even more so.

R84 most white people in America don't have any real significant history here. They are decedent's of immigrants who came to America all throughout the 20th century, or the late 19th century. They don't have any revolutionary blood or civil war blood running through their veins to speak of.

Most African Americans in who are decedent's of slaves,have revolutionary and civil war blood running through their veins. That's something most white people in America could never say, because their history here doesn't go back that far. They are mostly decedent's of immigrants, not foundational Americans.

So your wrong.

But they do help to to perpetuate America's long dark ugly history of racism and discrimination systemically. That's one thing they've grabbed whole of.

[quote] That's one thing they've grabbed whole of.

Oh dear.

R117 Fuck you.

It would be the best piece you ever had pal.

There are a couple "Oh, dears," in there.

Except that Obama's black ancestors have NOTHING to do with slavery and don't go back far at all, yet he was only too happy to claim all the heritage that the slaves had.. And that lie was accepted, tolerated and spread willingly never corrected by him.

Oh shut the fuck up R121.

Only on DL can you hear about people not being "real" Americans because their ancestors haven't been here since the 1600s.

It's like a John Birch Society meeting in the 1950s. Maybe you can get Charles Lindbergh for your next guest speaker!

I think it's gorgeous

R121 real African Americans know Obama isn't apart of the slave/jim crow history that historical African Americans are apart of. The group of black Americans who happen to be decedent's of slaves in America.

There's been countless stories written about this in black America. People know Obamas father is Kenyan and from west Africa and not east Africa where most black Americans lineage originate.

So I don't know why you'd say otherwise.

R123 Well it's true.

No, it's not true r126. It's insane.

No it's definitely true.

lol "real" Americans are the ones whose ancestors have been her since the beginning. Good thing you're old and will probably be dead soon.

R129 I said nothing about real Americans. I said foundational Americans idiot. People who faught in the revolutionary and civil wars. That includes blacks and whites. And no, I'm not old, I'm 31 years old. I was pointing out in one of my earlier posts how Trump's family has never contributed anything worthy to America and how he along with Jared Kushner are both in the white house destroying a country, neither one has foundational roots in.

My point being that America has been really good to them, but their doing ev6in their power to destroy this country along with it citizens. That's what makes me made about this current administration.

You clearly have comprehens problems because your not getting it. That, or your offended by the foundational comment. Are you descended from recent immigrants or something? Because if you are, it wasn't meant as an offence.

Hopefully I've cleared up any misunderstandings.

Not to defend Trump but the overwhelming majority of Americans don't have "foundational roots" in the US, if that's defined by having ancestors who were the first settlers. It's an insane argument.

Another crapped-on ruin destroyed by idiots who want it all clean, white and CONTEMPO.

Exudes cheapness down to the studs in the walls and mortar. Too bad. The original was fine.

I once spent the better part of a week touring Charleston and Savannah. I loved the food, and many of the restaurants. If I lived there, I would get so fat trying all the dishes.

I’m the descendant of slave owners who had a plantation in Tennessee. Not proud of it at all, but it is what it is. Affleck tried to “whitewash” his heritage on the PBS program.

R132 Thanks for sharing that.

I’ve got ancestors who fought in the Revolution and some who came through Ellis Island in 1956. I think plenty of Americans are mixed that way.

Showerthought: There are probably more black descendants of slave owners than white ones.

What's the big tsk-tsking about living in a former slave mansion? The world moves on. Just because some place had a bad history doesn't mean it can't be appreciated for the nice house that it is.

My closeted gay cousin moved to Savannah years ago. He was hot. I wonder what became of him?

Answered my question. He lives in South Carolina now. Has a boring job in manufacturing QM. He's still good looking even though he's 62, nice build and full head of hair and a cookie duster mustache. He's married, which is such bullshit because he was in his late 30s and unmarried and looked like a Tom Selleck clone last time I saw him.

Oh shit, I missed a link. He died over a year ago, age 61, no cause given, said he died peacefully at home. According to obit, he married at age 45, no kids. His LinkedIn page is still active, which is why I thought he was still among us. No condolences left on the memorial websites, no pics there either. My aunt his mother is still alive, and she's almost 90 now.

Is there a spare room for Matt?

Why would there be a spare room for Matt, R140?

As a Southerner, I think the house is pretty great, if a bit bland. But what was up with the living room before? Was there some sort of lamp stampede and they couldn't get them out of the house? I've never seen so many lamps in one room.

R142

Well it does get powerful dark out in the woods at night. Maybe Ben Affleck was afraid of the dark! For those not used to it night time in the south (especially in the woods) can be rather unnerving.

It isn't just lack of light either, but nighttime sounds can make the hair on some people's arms stand on end.

True about nighttime out in the woods. It is pitch black, you can't see shit.

Ouiser and the other ladies walking home from Shelby's wedding reception carrying flashlights is right. If you don't want to be hit walking along side of road, or someone (or thing) grab you in the dark, you need a portable lighting.

Hi, anyone who thinks he’s melungeon, get a load of Clooney...

That's right, there wouldn't a room for Matt....

Probably a dungeon. Matt, in chains, butt exposed, Ben with a can of Crisco.

[quote] Probably a dungeon. Matt, in chains, butt exposed, Ben with a can of Crisco.

Why butt exposed?

[quote] Hi, anyone who thinks he’s melungeon, get a load of Clooney..

They look like brothers there.

Is Clooney a Melungeon?

Why in the world did he buy something in Georgia? I don't get it.

What’s a melungeon and why are Clooney and Affleck suspected of being melungeons?

I really dislike those 19th century-style light fixtures.

I really dislike those 19th century-style light fixtures.

R152 I was wondering too, extremely interesting

Clooney maybe. Not Affleck. Melungeon I mean.

Goins is a ubiquitous family name amongst the Melungeons. I knew a gunners mate on my first ship with that surname. He had white skin and hair, but had a flat nose and rather full lips. Who knows....

[quote] Why in the world did he buy something in Georgia? I don't get it.

He fell in love with the area when he shot a movie around those parts in 1999.

Savannah is very beautiful. It's called the coastal empire low country area. The same with Charleston SC. It's a very beautiful peaceful part of the south east.

This ain't Savannah, honey.

R161 Whenever this house is brought up in the media, it's always linked to Savannah.

It’s not far from Savannah. Seems to be between Savannah and Hilton Head, SC. That whole area saw a lot of development in the past 25 years or so.

It’s beautiful but not really a place you’d want to live full time.

R163 here. I was wrong. It’s south of Savannah. Between Savannah and Jacksonville. Also a lot of development in that area.