
UPDATE ON BRONWOOD: I got a disturbing message from photographer Steve Robinson yesterday (11 April 2016). He wrote: I thought you might like an update on downtown Bronwood. It is gone! The entire block of brick buildings that you posted on your site has been leveled. As of yesterday, it is a pile of bricks. I turned on that street yesterday and instantly got depressed. His photo is below.

Bob Rainey, a Bronwood resident who bought the buildings a few years ago, told Melissa Hodges for a story on WALB-TV: It was so unsafe, the floors were rotten, the roof was falling in, and the glass in the front was all broke and hanging. Rainey, whose family has operated a used car dealership across the street since the 1960’s, bought the block two years ago. I put two years of thought into this, it didn’t happen overnight. There were a couple buildings where the roof was already gone. I understand that there were efforts over the years to attract businesses here but they all fell through. When faced with such prospects, a property owner often has no choice. The buildings were a tax and insurance liability. Watch Melissa’s report for more background.

Though other buildings remain, this was the commercial core of Bronwood. This is a devastating loss.

Richard Stott wrote of the above building, which may have originally been a bank: When I lived there, the far end of this building was the post office, and next to it was Floyd Herrington’s barber shop.