This is the last surviving of several massive industrial shop buildings which served the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic and its successors in its Fitzgerald hub. Their presence speaks not only to the vast expansion of the railroad industry at the turn of the century, but as well to the rapid growth of Fitzgerald, scarcely 10 years old when this heavy industry brought large-scale employment to the town.

Larry Goolsby, who has done more research on the history of the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic and its successor than anyone I know, wrote in his excellent history Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast, ACL & SCL Historical Society, Valrico, Florida, 2000: “The Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic was…busy…during 1906. Construction was proceeding on a large yard and permanent shop complex at Fitzgerald, including a 75×300-foot machine shop with and 85-ton traveling crane, blacksmith and boiler shops, engine house, coach shop, planing mill, foundry, and a power house among other buildings. These facilities, called Shops at first and renamed Westwood in 1922, would replace AB&A’s small shops at Brunswick and Waycross as the system’s major site for rebuilding, repairs, and painting. They also superseded the wooden shop buildings originally built at Fitzgerald. The scope of the undertaking could be gauged by Master Mechanic J. E. Cameron’s concern over housing for the new shops’ employees: “In 60 days from now we will bring in the neighborhood of 300 men and their families, and not a house for their accommodation.“

A majority of the railroad laborers were African-Americans, and houses were soon constructed in Westwood, an historically African-American community about a mile from the Fitzgerald yard. I had always presumed that Westwood existed because of the railroad, and it certainly grew with their presence, but at least one church in the village predates the railroad’s presence by nearly 30 years.

Over the years, the existing Westwood shop buildings began to deteriorate as the railroad transferred their operations elsewhere. A couple of the buildings, nearly identical to the one pictured here, were still standing as recently as 15-20 years ago. In the years since they were abandoned by the railroad, they have been used by various businesses.