This building has always intrigued me. Tax records date it to 1900, but its Greek Revival design suggests it’s likely older than that. It’s definitely older than other commercial buildings in Oglethorpe. The floor plan appears from the exterior to be a double-shotgun form, but this may have been a modification. The left side has a window flanked by two doors, and the right side has the more typical configuration of a door flanked by two windows. The building is five bays deep, with narrowly spaced 9 over 9 windows. At the time of this photograph (2009), the commercial spaces were occupied by Tyson’s Wings, and Haddock Sister Designer Hats. I hope to learn the history.
Brian,
This building reminds me of the doctor’s office at the assembled historical village/musem called “Westville” now relocated to Columbus. I often drove past this building in Oglethorpe when I lived in nearby Americus and a Macon County student in my history class told me the building was once a doctor’s office (as was the similar building in Westville. The building in Oglethorpe could also have been built as a law office given all the windows. Hope you get to the bottom of this fascinating building’s story. Oglethorpe was a booming little town until a yellow fever epidemic broke out. The town had arisen in the lowlands along a waterway. Several ante-bellum homes were disassembled and moved-one became the home of the Dudley family near Americus. Dr. Arthur Raper’s famous book Prelude to Peonage was based on research done for his dissertation in sociology and which was a comparison of the effect of depression-era poverty and government programs in two Georgia counties, Green and Macon. This might offer some insight into Oglethorpe’s story. Raper had studied under Dr. Odum of UGA environmental studies fame.