Whitney White did not ride around in a convertible with her childhood German shepherd dogs — or brothers as she affectionately calls them — but she certainly feels an affinity for the breed.

It’s a connection she shares with the previous owner of the Pebble Hill Plantation, Elisabeth Ireland Poe, who did in fact place her favorite dog, Gloria, in her convertible wearing driving goggles. As executive director of the plantation, White loves how the photographic archives show Poe’s adoration for her many dogs.

“Ms. Poe had artists do drawings of Gloria,” explains White. “She is featured on a set of plates drawn by Richard Bishop, a sporting artist of the 1930s. We contacted a German shepherd dog society that had Gloria’s genealogy on record from the beginning of the breed.”

Artists’ canine renderings fill the house and come in every medium. As a hunting plantation, these dogs were companions both for work and play. For White, it was only natural that the newly established Elisabeth Ireland Poe art gallery feature this integral part of Pebble Hill’s story. The gallery’s third exhibition, “Working Like A Dog,” is on display through April 25th.

Poe was 3 years old when her mother took over Pebble Hill Plantation. White was in fourth grade when her mother began working at the house as assistant director. Poe considered the estate her home base, with 50 to 75 Welsh corgis, bull terriers, Staffordshire terriers, Walker hounds, English cockerspaniels and yellow labs in the kennels at any

time. White loved her German shepherds like siblings and worked nearly every job on the plantation.

“I worked in the ticketing office during high school and came here on summers and breaks throughout college,” says White, who earned her bachelor’s from Barry College and MBA from Thomasville University.

White was the Main House museum manager until November 2017 when she was named to her current role as executive director. Pebble Hill is her second home. She is consumed by the stories it tells. Most of all she enjoys carrying out Poe’s wishes to preserve the home and educate the public on 20th century shooting plantations.

Pebble Hill does not contain replicas of items, but rather features the very same furniture and decorative arts that the family curated while they lived there. White says the personal touches are seen in everything from the books in the library to the carved hoofs that hang in the stables. She feels a strong kinship with Poe given the archival diaries and items in the home. Many items hold special meaning as she’s grown up alongside the history.

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