The Vann stairway is one of the oldest examples of cantilevered construction in Georgia . This was on one side of the main entrance , which originally faced the Federal Road , and works like a set of scales . To get a set of scales to balance themselves , an equal weight must be applied to each side . Though half of the staircase is suspended over the first floor hallway , roughly six inches of the opposite side of the stairway is in a solid brick wall . The brick wall is far denser than the second landing ; this means there will never be enough weight on the landing to " tip the scale . " In 1819 , President James Monroe and his three men were on a trip from Augusta to Nashville . They intended to spend the night in the Spartan Moravian mission at Spring Place , but instead President Monroe went to a nearby location , The Vann House , which he found more comfortable than the mission , so he asked Rich Joe permission to spend the night . Rich Joe was 20 years old when he met President Monroe . After the Georgia Gold Rush , Rich Joe hired a white man , a Mr. Howel , to run Vann House . Although he never actually worked for Vann , the Cherokee had unknowingly violated a new Georgia law forbidding whites from working for Cherokees without a permit . Leading up to the Cherokee Trail of Tears , Rich Joe and his family were caught in the midst of the struggle between two opposing claims for the house . Colonel William Bishop and the infamous Georgia Guard tried to take over the house on the grounds of his hiring a white man without a permit . Spencer Riley , who claimed to have won the house in the Land Lottery of 1832 , known as the Sixth Georgia Land Lottery , made a claim for the house at the same time . Rich Joe was then evicted by Colonel Bishop
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Chief Vann House Historic Site