Located in a section of the old Fort Screven complex, the Tybee “Lite” Shrine Club pays homage to the famous lighthouse just across the street.
Tybee Lite Shrine Club, Tybee Island
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Yearly Archives: 2012
Bowie Seafood, Tybee Island
Bowie Seafood is a popular and longtime local favorite on the island, though the hours are often irregular. Tybee Islanders will tell you that Bowie’s has some of the freshest seafood in town.
Fogle-Shockley Hotel, 1886, Alapaha
From the Macon Telegraph, 24 March 1886:…a new hotel, two stories high, nicely fitted up and well kept. Dr. J.A. Fogle, one of the most clever men you would meet in a week’s hard riding, is the proprietor, but his time is mostly devoted to an extensive practice and to his well stocked drug store. The hotel is presided over by Mrs. Fogle, a lady of refinement and most pleasant manner, ably assisted by her sister, Miss Fannie Leonard. The table is bountifully supplied with tempting fare, the sleeping apartments are models of cleanliness and comfort, and the attention to guests is prompt and courteous. The commercial tourists are fond in their praise of it, and you know they are, generally speaking, a difficult set to please.
Alapaha native and author Cynthia Shearer (The Wonder Book of the Air; The Celestial Jukebox) related this to me in an email: Later it was the Shockely Hotel, and the last proprietor of it, Ida Shockley Creech, sold it to an artist. The artist’s wife still lives there, I believe. I grew up in Alapaha, and ate many a Sunday dinner there…
This is now a private residence.
Dr. William A. Moore House, 1898, Alapaha
This house was built by Dr. William Aaron Moore and his wife Roxie Wycoff Moore. He was an M.D. and she was an R. N. In recent years, it has fallen into disrepair and is presently for sale. I sincerely hope someone will realize the potential in it and work to save it. Thanks to Dr. Moore’s granddaughter, Carole Wingate Keefe, for the identification. She recalled: It was located right across from the depot and when trains came through at night, the noise was an eye opener. Mark Dixon, author of a centennial history of Alapaha in 1981, confirms this information.
Isaac Murray House, 1900, Alapaha
Thanks to Mark Dixon for the identification. This a great example of a saddlebag house.
St. Ann Catholic Church, 1942, Alapaha
St. Anne’s grew out of the need for a new facility for St. Bridget’s. It’s quite unusual for a town as small as Alapaha to have had two Catholic churches.
Alapaha Colored School, 1924
This served the black community of Alapaha until 1954. Recently restored, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a nice example of an African-American vernacular schoolhouse. Mark Dixon writes that Nathan Bridges, Brutus Shipman, and T. H. Smith were the first trustees of the school.
Please visit the wonderful Berrien Historical Foundation website for more photos, as well as a video of the Alapaha Colored School.
National Register of Historic Places
James & Josephine Royal House, Irwin County
Donna Griffin writes: This house belonged to my Papa and Granny (James and Josephine Royal). They raised their 9 children here. Mama (Dorothy Grimsley) inherited this homeplace (28 acres + the 1 acre adjoining with the brick home & tobacco barn). The precinct house sits on this property. After mama’s death in 2001, daddy (Pat Grimsley) called himself caretaker of the land. Daddy passed away last year – October 2011. My brother, sister and I inherited the property and homes equally and my husband and I were privileged to purchase this property in June 2012. Thank you for appreciating and posting this home. I have my most fondest memories of childhood here – spending so much time on the front porch, which was screened in and only on the front of the house then… papa’s pipe, granny’s watermelon, Lawrence Welk and Little House on the Prairie… pickin’ peas, digging potatoes – climbing that cedar tree and day dreaming on the lower limb – entertained for hours. As the oldest of 17 1st cousins I was the first grandchild to experience this wonderful place – but everyone after me, loved it too. It had a heartbeat and it loved us.
The house is located in Frank, a small farm community outside Ocilla. As far as I can tell it never even had a post office, but in the early 20th century it had a school, as well as a church which remains today. A voting precinct has also been located here for many years. I wish I knew more of the history. The house I’m featuring in these images has the most extreme pyramidal roof of any in the area, although it’s been updated with vinyl siding and modern shingles. It was the home of James and Josephine Royal . Thanks to Tonya Brown Grimsley for the initial identification.
Pollution on the Altamaha River
Thanks to Constance Riggins and Deborah Sheppard at Altamaha Riverkeeper, I recently made a flight over the Altamaha River to photograph Paddle Georgia participants kayaking the stretch of the river near the Rayonier mill (now RYAM) in Jesup. Rayonier is a vital part of the economy of the entire Wayne County area, but regardless of their protection by DNR and EPD, state agencies charged with enforcement of established standards, they continue to pollute the air and the river.
Relaxed enforcement due in part to politics and in part to economic woes has begun to show on our rivers and waterways. Look no further than King America in Screven County for evidence of this trend: discharge from their facility into the Ogeechee River culminated in the deaths of over 35,000 fish last year.
Paddle Georgia, the Georgia River Network, and Altamaha Riverkeeper aren’t a bunch of fringe environmentalists hellbent on shutting down facilities and interfering with good businesses, but rather they’re normal people who care more about the earth’s future than they do about minimization of profits. They come from all socioeconomic backgrounds and their politics run the spectrum. They all love rivers. It’s strange to me how when I was growing up, Southerners made fun of the Rust Belt cities up north for not caring about their resources and for being such bad stewards of God’s earth. I saw the South as being above that sort of irresponsibility but the bad economy has forced businesses and government agencies charged with protection of natural resources into a “deal with the devil”. It’s clear that the powers that be are choosing jobs and the immediate economy over the long-term health of the environment and how that will effect the lives and well-being of future generations.
I was hesitant to post these photographs, as I’m not on some sort of mission to smear Rayonier or the government, but I think it’s time everyday people made their voices heard. When someone accuses you of caring more about rivers than you care about the ability of people to make a living, just say it’s not about choosing one over the other. It’s about balancing the two in a way that gives a damn about this messy world we’re leaving behind.
The image above, showing Paddle Georgia participants making their way through the Rayonier discharge near Doctortown in Wayne County, was published on the front page of the Savannah Morning News, 23 June 2012.
Bryan Neck Presbyterian Church, 1885, Keller
This congregation was first organized circa 1830 by prominent Bryan Neck rice planters including Thomas Savage Clay, Richard James Arnold, and George Washington McCallister. The first church building was constructed three miles from this location in 1839. Its adjoining burial ground is now known as Burnt Church Cemetery.
The present church, built in 1885, is the oldest public building in Bryan County. It’s a rare small example of cruciform architecture.
National Register of Historic Places