
Earlier today I published a photo of this structure, which was mysterious because of its lack of windows; I thought it may have been a long-forgotten church or schoolhouse. This led to a conversation with Ron Weatherford, who explained that this was originally a farmhouse but was converted to use as a barn after the owners built a newer house across the dirt road. He also noted that the property had been clearcut recently.

Ron wrote that about 600 acres here was owned by the Hutchesons but they never lived here. However, their daughter, who married a Caldwell, did. It was known as the Caldwell place thereafter. The Caldwells lived here for decades.

There was something familiar about the house and I realized I’d photographed it, I believe on a barn hunting trip with Cal Avery and Mike McCall in 2014. I published it as “Board-and-Batten Farmhouse, Emanuel County” on 11 February 2014. The property was very overgrown at the time but I was able to point my camera inside and document the beautiful walls in the old place. Ron Weatherford wrote at the time that this room was the Caldwell’s bedroom. He said that when they moved to a more modern house on the property, a farmhand moved in. After it was abandoned, vandals ransacked the place and stole porcelain doorknobs and other relics.

I wasn’t able to get a good shot of the front of the house, which was probably built in the 1920s, but took photos from other perspectives. An old cedar tree, probably planted as a seedling by the Caldwells, heavily shades the front porch.


This is a gem! Quite a fascinating structure that is will sadly slip into memory only soon.