The Cobb-Treanor House, also known as the John A. Cobb House and as the Brittain Place, is located at 1234 South Lumpkin Street (Tax Parcel No. 17-3-A2-A-014).
 

This two-story frame building is essentially a Greek Revival plantation house featuring a central hall plan with a four-over-four room arrangement. The detailing and ornamentation of the main body of the Cobb-Treanor house are typical of the Greek Revival style. The Gothic Revival portico, however, reflects the eclectic revivalistic movement in mid-nineteenth century architecture. The attenuated columns are quatrefoil in section and are apparently unique to the Athens-Lexington area. These columns combine with brackets to form shallow, elliptical pseudo-arches and divide the portico into seven bays, the central being approximately twice the width of the three bays on either side. The circular gravel driveway, unpaved but curbed, and a historic side-yard cottage, also survive.

The original owner was a wealthy planter and former legislator, John Addison Cobb. The actual date of construction remains unknown because he neglected to record his deeds, but census records lend credence to the belief that the house was given in 1841 as a wedding gift to his daughter, Laura Cobb Rutherford. The Cobb-Treanor house is the birthplace of her daughter, Mildred Lewis Rutherford, who later gained local prominence as headmistress of the Lucy Cobb Institute and Historian General of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In 1857 Henry L. Brittain purchased the 25-acre site and the house, which remained in family hands until 1905. Ownership changed often until 1912, when Alexander Woodson Ashford, a wealthy Watkinsville merchant, acquired the building for use as a private dormitory for his four sons attending the University of Georgia. After Kate McKinley Treanor purchased the place in 1929, it became home to her descendants through the 1980s. In 1990, the University of Georgia rehabilitated the building to house the Institute of Community and Area Development (ICAD).

The Cobb-Treanor House was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (GA-1166) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (May 8, 1979).