Solomon Hall House, Tattnall County

An old, dilapidated wooden house with a rusty metal roof, surrounded by tall grass and trees.

I was recently invited by Laura Potts-Wirth to photograph an old sharecropper’s house on her property near Glennville.

An abandoned wooden house with a red metal roof, showing signs of decay and overgrowth, surrounded by tall grass and trees in the background.

Though there are no plans to restore the house, it is an important example of vernacular architecture and I’m honored to have been given access.

An abandoned, dilapidated wooden house with a rusted metal roof, showing signs of wear and neglect, surrounded by overgrown grass and trees.

It is a simple gabled-ell cottage, likely built between the 1910s-1930s.

Abandoned wooden house wall with a dirty window frame, showing cobwebs and peeling paint.

The owner was Solomon R. Hall, Sr., (1902-1988). He and his wife Mollie Bee E. Hall (1905-1970) raised thirteen children and three grandchildren here, while sharecropping on the Old Anderson Place, to which this property was once attached. Records indicate that ownership passed back and forth between Mr. Hall and the Andersons over the years.

An old blue cabinet with a wooden door, standing next to a rustic table in an abandoned building, with overgrown grass visible outside.

Solomon Hall was also a turpentine laborer and would have known the woods and fields around his home as well as anyone else.

Interior view of a weathered wooden door frame with a partially open door and a wooden wall, showcasing rustic materials and textures.

Just across US 301 from the property there was once a community of African-Americans known as Hall Town. The only remaining public landmark of the community is the Old Hall Town Cemetery, which I also documented.

An abandoned interior of a room with wooden walls, a partially open door, a window showing greenery outside, and debris scattered on the floor.

The interior rooms are spare, which was characteristic of this type of housing.

Interior of an abandoned room with wooden floors, a round table, and a window showing trees outside. The walls are brown with peeling paint, and there are dust and leaves scattered on the floor.

I think it is hard for most people to imagine a dozen or more people living in such spaces, but it was much more common than one might realize.

An empty, weathered room with blue wooden walls featuring an old rocking chair and a partially open door, showcasing rustic and worn textures.

Gary Mobley, in a March 2020 oral history interview with Laura Potts-Wirth, noted, “Here, Solomon Hall and his wife, Mrs. Bea (sic)…, raised 13 children, and three grandchildren. They did work for part of the harvest. They hunted the land and also got a portion of the hog meat. The small building in the back of their house was either a smokehouse or a summer kitchen. One of the jobs the Sharecroppers had was keeping the farm rows cleared of weeds and clearing volunteer trees for three feet on either side of the fence rows. Up near the pond, there was another sharecropper’s house, where Choice Coley lived...”

An old, weathered wooden shed with missing planks and a rusted metal roof, surrounded by tall grass and trees under a cloudy sky.

Kelly and Fran Folsom spoke very highly of both Solomon Hall and Choice Coley and recalled to Laura Potts-Wirth: “…Mr.Solomon was really responsible for overseeing the farm, especially as Mr. Anderson was getting older, and also when the Dents owned the farm. Solomon Hall really had a lot to do with supervising and managing the farm, overseeing the work being done, and just being a caretaker of the farm.“

An outdoor rustic privy, or outhouse, with a corrugated metal roof, situated among trees and grass, showing signs of weathering and age.

The survival of the outbuildings adds importance to the property as a representative example of its type. Even the old privy, re-sided, is a reminder of the times.

Close-up of a vibrant red flower with long, slender petals and multiple stamens, surrounded by green grass.

Plantings by Mrs. Hall are still blooming, like this hurricane (or spider) lily.

A vibrant field of lush green plants with pink and yellow flowers under a partly cloudy sky.

There are clumps of another old favorite, lantana, in several spots around the house.

A dilapidated wooden house with a rusted metal roof, surrounded by tall grass and trees in a rural landscape.

Warwick Consolidated School, 1923, Worth County

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A large red brick house with multiple windows and a front porch, surrounded by greenery. — Warwick Consolidated School, 1970s ©John Myers

John Myers recently shared this historic photograph of the old Warwick Consolidated School, also known simply as the Warwick School. It is a modern edit of a photograph he took when he was a boy in the 1970s, and it is great to see it. The school was a consolidation of several smaller area schools and was open from 1923 until its closure in the 1970s. It was demolished some time after that. C. V. Arnold was the architect and W. H. Little was the contractor responsible for its construction. The school’s historic gymnasium, is still standing, as is the lunchroom, which is now home to the local Lion’s Club.

A Ray of Hope for a Savannah Ghost Sign

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A weathered brick wall displaying a faded advertisement for 'Uneeda Biscuit,' featuring remnants of colorful paint and vintage lettering, alongside a one-way street sign.

According to the excellent Savannah Agenda, Luis Posada, who owns the Uneeda Biscuit mural at the corner of Price Street and East Perry Street, is hoping to save it with selective restoration. He will appeal to the Historic Sites and Monuments Commission to stabilize it without making it look new. Here’s hoping.

Faded advertisement for 'Uneeda Biscuit' on a brick wall, showcasing historical marketing art.

The mural, which adorns the side of a circa 1854 block of row houses, proclaims: “Everybody Knows Uneeda Biscuit”. The other text indicates that they cost 5 cents and were sold “In Packages”, a big improvement over the barrel crackers found in general stores that were apt to quickly go stale.The two faded boxes at bottom right and left displayed the National Biscuit Company logo. They were once red but have now taken a pinkish tone. My best guess for the date of the mural would be circa 1900-1910.

According to the Society for Commercial Archaeology, the National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) spent $7 million from 1898-1908 to put Uneeda Biscuits on everyone’s mind and these murals became ubiquitous. This was unheard of at the time and was even more wide-ranging than Coca-Cola’s iconic mural campaign. At one point, it’s estimated that 30 million people a day saw one of these murals. Like other icons of their age, they are largely endangered today.

Savannah National Historic Landmark District, National Register of Historic Places

Tattnall Bank and Other Historic Storefronts Demolished in Reidsville

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What do we think about progress? Last week, the historic Tattnall Bank, which was Reidsville’s most significant remaining commercial building, was slated for demolition, along with other adjacent storefronts, to make way for the construction of a Circle K convenience store. Local leadership embraced this as progress. This is really sad for Reidsville, which has very few historic commercial structures. The loss of these buildings essentially wipes out the historic downtown, after the razing of a row of buildings down the street about a decade ago.

Hazlehurst Landmark Faces Demolition

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An abandoned, weathered white house with classical columns and peeling paint, surrounded by grass and trees, with a Western Motel sign visible in the background.

Michael Williams reached out to me last week to let me know that one of Hazlehurst’s most recognizable landmarks, the home and office of Dr. Samuel L. Martin (1876-1966), was soon to be demolished if no one stepped forward to move it.

Close-up view of a weathered, abandoned building with peeling paint, showcasing brick steps leading up to a porch with columns.

As our friend Jesse Bookhardt said back in 2024: “Everybody loves Dr. Martin’s old home, but nobody seems to love it so much that they are willing to save it, so it continues to vanish bit by bit.“

Close-up of a weathered wooden wall with peeling paint, featuring a window with a stained glass top and a lace curtain, reflecting the exterior environment.

Dr. Martin was a graduate of the Atlanta School of Medicine (now Emory University), who also dabbled in politics. He was a city alderman and mayor of Hazlehurst, in addition to service in both houses of the state legislature. While serving in the senate, he promoted a bill which provided scholarships for medical students who would practice for four years in small towns who were underserved by health care.

Close-up of a weathered wooden door with peeling paint, featuring decorative fan-shaped carvings and glass panels, flanked by vintage-style lanterns.

Even in its deteriorated state, the house has been a favorite to many who have seen it and photographed it over the years. It has most recently, to my knowledge, been some sort of antique store, but it has been abandoned for quite some time.

View of weathered white columns of a building with peeling paint, overlooking a grassy area and a road with passing cars.

The architecture is quite eclectic, especially the asymmetrical front. I think the front and colonnade may be early additions to the house, which was originally built by Charles Felder Chapman (1879-1951) for his wife, Winnie Mae Roberson Chapman (1890-1931).

Abandoned two-story house with peeling white paint, broken windows, and overgrown vegetation, set against a blue sky.

The carriage house became Dr. Martin’s home office, though he was an old-fashioned country doctor and spent much of his time on the backroads of Jeff Davis County, taking care of rural patients.

An old, weathered building with a gray exterior and wooden accents, featuring broken windows and overgrown grass surrounding it.

It is always sad to share news like this, but I’ve seen so much of it over the years, I can imagine the outcome. The best possible scenario would be for someone to move and save the house, but short of that, it will soon be gone forever.

An abandoned, weathered two-story house with large white columns, peeling paint, and a grassy yard.

Beach Hill Missionary Baptist Church, Liberty County

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After the Civil War, the enslaved people of nearby Midway Congregational Church formed their own congregations throughout the county. The African-American community chose names based on the South Carolina locations where they came from, including Dorchester and Beech Hill. At some point, the spelling of Beech Hill was changed to Beach Hill. I haven’t been able to find a date for the organization of this congregation, but it would likely be circa 1865-1870, a common establishment date for the Freedmen churches of the area. In fact, Beach Hill is very close to the historic Freedman Grove community. The present church, originally a wood-framed structure, features the iconic “wedding cake” steeple often found in historic Black churches.

St. James AME Church, Liberty County

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A small, white church building with a red metal roof, surrounded by green grass and trees.

As best I can determine, St. James AME Church is a historic Freedmen’s congregation. While the present-day address is Fleming, it is primarily associated with the nearby Freedman’s Grove community.