Category Archives: –BULLOCH COUNTY GA–

Tillman & Deal Farm Supply, Register

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Exterior view of a brick building with a sign reading 'Tillman's Deal Farm Supply,' featuring a white door and windows, surrounded by grassy land.

Robertson’s Store & Post Office, 1905, Brooklet

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Historic building in Brooklet, Georgia, featuring a red brick facade with the words 'U.S. POST OFFICE' and 'ROBERTSON'S' painted on the front, along with a sign for 'Linda's Salon'.

Brooklet is a friendly little town just outside Statesboro. I had a nice talk with a third-generation member of the Robertson family when I was here.

Stilson, Georgia

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Abandoned storefronts in Stilson, Georgia, with a red metal roof and brick facade, featuring boarded windows and a broken pathway, surrounded by trees.

Stilson was one of numerous villages that grew up along the Savannah & Statesboro Railway in the late 1890s. Formally established in 1899, it was named for Stilson Hutchinson for his work in bringing the railroad to the area. Like many such villages in the region, it was surrounded by prosperous farms and had a role in the naval stores and turpentine industries. A school, the Stilson Academy, opened in 1901 and was later replaced by Stilson High School, which, before closing in 1955, won both the Boys and Girls State Basketball Championships (1952).

An old, rustic store building in Stilson, Georgia, featuring a large Coca-Cola advertisement on its side, surrounded by trees under a blue sky.

A few landmarks of the town remain, but with the expansive growth of Savannah, they are highly vulnerable.

Harville House, 1894, Bulloch County

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Harville House, an abandoned, dilapidated Victorian-style house with a covered porch, overgrown vines, and a weathered exterior, set against a clear blue sky.

This house has been a landmark of rural Bulloch County for over a century. Overgrown shrubs and vines have recently been cleared, and though the house seems too far gone to be saved at this point, Harville descendants who still own the property are working hard to find viable options for its restoration.

The Harville House, of Statesboro, Georgia, with a partially collapsed porch, overgrown vines, and a blue sky in the background.

According to a fellow photographer who attended Georgia Southern in the early 1970s, the house was abandoned then, and was called the “Haunted House” by students and locals alike.

Historic portrait of the Harville family of Statesboro, Georgia, in sepia tone, featuring a seated man with a hat, standing adults, and children in front of a large house with a horse and cow nearby.
Harville Family, Circa early 1900s. Public domain image via Findagrave.

This vintage image shows Keebler Harville with his wife Hester in front of what I believe is the Harville House before the second story was added. His father, Samuel Harville, is seated at far left. It is posted on several websites. It isn’t attributed at any of those websites and I cannot find an original source.

The Harville House of Statesboro, Georgia, set against a clear blue sky and surrounded by bare trees.

Here’s a view of the house from the west front.

A historical black and white photo of a group of people posing in front of a large house, with a horse and a dog in the foreground.
Children outside the Harville House. Circa early 1900s. Public domain image courtesy Courtesy Statesboro Regional Library.

This is the same view of the house, over a hundred years earlier.

Harville House, Statesboro, Bulloch County, Georgia.

In 2013 the Bulloch County Historical Society, with assistance from the Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Foundation,  placed a marker explaining its history. The house is on private property and should be photographed from the road only. From the historic marker: Samuel Winkler Harville purchased this 754-acre farm in 1862. Born on December 17, 1826, Harville was one of two delegates Bulloch County sent to the 1861 Secession Convention in Milledgeville. He voted for Georgia to secede from the Union.

Samuel’s son, Henry Keebler Harville, purchased the property and built the Harville House as a one-story house around 1894. The second story was added ten years later, resulting in a total of 14 rooms to accommodate a growing family. The vernacular architectural features of the house were inspired by a dream of Keebler Harville. The lumber used was cut and sawn from timber grown on the farm. By the time of Keebler’s death in 1946, the farm had grown to 2800 acres. More than just a landmark, the farm was self-sustaining for 10 families. It included a grist mill, saw mill, cotton gin, two-story smokehouse, ice house, syrup house, and a commissary. He was the first in Bulloch County to sell peanuts commercially and picked peanuts commercially for other farmers from Blitchton to Claxton. He purchased the first corn snapper in the county.

The Harville Cemetery is located 1/4 mile west of the house.

 

 

 

Nesmith General Store, Bulloch County

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A collapsed wooden structure surrounded by lush green trees and grass under a clear blue sky.
2013

I’ve never been able to identify this store. It collapsed in the spring of 2013, as seen above. It took many years, but I finally got an identification, from K. Lynn Bowen-Williams: “…it is located on my family’s property. The country store was original to the farm property it is located on, along with the Folk Victorian house on the property, that was originally owned and built by John Sovereign/Servant Nesmith Jr.The house and property were later purchased by my grandparents, Dew Hines Smith and Kate Harville Smith (yes, one of the many Harvilles of Bulloch county), and are currently owned by my mother, Kathryn S. Bowen.“

An old, rustic wooden country store with a weathered exterior, surrounded by a grassy area and a fence under a partly cloudy sky.
2010

Lane-Waters House, 1870s, Bulloch County

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Decrepit Plantation Plain house with a porch, surrounded by overgrown vegetation and trees under a clear blue sky.

This is located near the Harville House. Marty Waters writes: “The Jim Waters Family lived in this house from 1930 until my last uncle died in 2001. Our family has farmed this land since the mid-1920s. It is our understanding that the house was built in the 1870s by the Lane family. In the early 1900s the area was known as Enal* (Lane spelled backward). The home is owned by residents in Florida.”

*-There was a post office at Enal from 1882-1906.

Plantation Plain house with a brick chimney, partially surrounded by a large, barren tree and overgrown vegetation.

Ephesus Primitive Baptist Church, Bulloch County

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A white wooden building with a metal roof, featuring black shutters and a front porch with steps. The surrounding area is grassy and sparse.

Ephesus Primitive Baptist Church was constituted in 1888. It’s located on US Highway 301 just north of the Evans County line.

Ephesus Primitive Baptist Church near Statesboro, Georgia, surrounded by trees and a grassy area, featuring black shutters and a set of steps leading to the front entrance.