I’m not sure if this structure is original to this location, but it’s an early-20th-century construction and appears to be a marriage of two structures.
Tenant House, Long County
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown
Since 2008. A visual survey of Georgia's historic architecture and culture. 9,000 locations. 30,000 images.
Brian,
The Saw Palmetto displayed in the forefront of this picture brings back many memories of South Georgia. When I recall my childhood days, those days are filled with scenes that include sandy roads, Longleaf pines, tobacco barns, sharecropper shacks, tar barrels, and Palmetto bushes mixed with Gallberry. These beautiful plants were a source of entertainment for many poor kids who used natural things around the farm with which to play. Old timers taught us how to make a whistle from the stem of these plants. You find a clump of Saw Palmettos and remove a section of stem by cutting a length about four inches long. With a pocket knife, scrape the thorns off each side of the stem, and then on one end, slice or split it open about half the length of the stem. In that slit, place a similarly sized section of the palmetto leaf. Trim the leaf on each side of the stem so that it is even with the stem. Place the end with the slit in your mouth and blow. Presto! You will produce a whistling sound and you can blow until your heart is content or until someone tells you to “cut the racket.”
Another use for the palmetto is to make it into something you can eat. The fresh buds of the leaves when growing in the spring can be stir-fried and consumed. To produce shade for animals, an additional use for palmetto leaves was to roof a hut or cover a hog pen. Some folk also used the broad leaves as a cleaning surface upon which to scale and gut fish when at the river. Native Americans used them for many other things such as for basket material. Further, the plant produces much nectar for honey during the spring. I can’t imagine South Georgia without Saw Palmettos.
One word of warning, never try to tangle with a Diamond Back Rattler who is in the middle of a palmetto patch on a windy day. I did while quail hunting one dry November day back in 1961. Had it not been for my bird dog Zorro and my brother John, who was quick on the draw, I might not be here.