Category Archives: Alma GA

Grain Elevator, Alma

Wooden grain elevators are rare in Georgia and this one in Alma has always been a favorite. It is now part of a larger structure that includes a church.

Alma Exchange Bank, 1966

Locals sometimes call this drive-thru branch of the Alma Exchange Bank the Jetsons Bank for its Space Age appearance. The architecture is actually a style, popular in the 1950s and 1960s, known as Googie. This bank had a twin in Sylvester that has since been demolished. Recently, there has been some concern that this facility could be demolished, but I can’t verify anything beyond rumor. It’s a real landmark that Alma should attempt to preserve. Photographers from all over the country have visited and photographed it.

Mission Style Storefront, Alma

Shotgun Office Building, Alma

Barber Shop, Alma

This is an excellent example of an old time barber shop. I got my first haircut in a place like this.

Sharie D. Music writes: My dad is 80 yrs old. After the military, he graduated Barber School, and planted his roots there on that corner, in that Barber shop in Alma, Ga., long before I was even born. That very chair was designed with an ashtray in the arm of it, if that tells you how old it is. I grew up spinning circles in that chair. I’ve seen a lot of people sit in that chair. It’s kinda sad when I think about it, but a blessing all the same., To see a man bringing his son in for his first hair cut, then years later that son brings his dad in for his last hair cut. My dad developed a friendship with his customers over the years, as they would come in and talk to him about their lives and problems they had had, sharing happy moments too. He would give them advice sometimes, and other times he would just listen. And he has watched over the years as so many of those friends have since passed on. He still works there today, I’m sure going to miss that chair when it’s my dad’s turn to go home. That used to be one busy place… I’d sit in the office as a kid, and try to ignore all the gossip, it would be a room full of men , sitting around talking politics, telling dirty jokes, and bragging on how big that fish was that they caught over the weekend. That chair may not look old, but I promise, that chair is one chair that I’d give anything for it to be 1980 again , and me be 5 yrs old chewing my Barbershop Gum, and spinning in circles as fast as I could go.

Alma Depot, 1906

Built for use by a branch of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Alma’s depot has played an integral role in the history of Bacon County.  A local credit union, which later became the Alma Exchange Bank, was founded here in 1930 and was housed in the depot until 1939. Though some restoration has been done, the building is not being utilized today, as far as I can tell. Read more here.

National Register of Historic Places

Ideal Cleaners, Alma

This is located next door to the Bacon Lodge.

Carter’s Hamburgers, Alma

This restaurant is a longtime landmark on U. S. Highway 1.

Hotel Alma, 1938

Ralph Deen wrote: Thanks a bunch for including this pic of The “New” Alma Hotel. My father, Braswell Deen, Sr., built this and operated it very successfully until WWII broke out and gas-rationing was the order of the day…virtually eliminating “traveling salesmen”.

Bacon Lodge No. 56 F. & A. M., Alma

Like many Masonic lodges in Georgia, the Bacon Lodge has been home to other businesses during its history.