I photographed this old farmhouse on Herschel Vickers Road in 2009 and again in 2011. It looked about the same both times, but I imagine it’s gone today. Places like this have been sentinels in my dirt road travels for nearly a quarter century but are becoming rarer today. Most are just victims of time and the weather.
This barn is located at the turn-off from the Fitzgerald Highway into Broxton. It’s a commercial barn of some kind but I admit I have no idea what purpose it served. I’ve seen what appeared to be cotton waste on the ground here, so perhaps it was used for composting. I hope to find out more about it. I made this photo around 2012 but it was still standing in 2022.
There aren’t as many canopy roads as there used to be, so they are always a welcome surprise. They are loved for their shade and their beauty. The most famous in Georgia, in Thomas County, are lined with old oaks. It’s rarer to find them in other parts of the state, but if you know where to look, you can encounter them elsewhere. There are some on the coast, of course. This one was unmarked and led to an historic cemetery, which is how I found it when I photographed it in 2009. I hope it still looks like this.
You don’t see many of these old Rexall drug store signs anymore, but the one at Malcolm’s Drugs is a Peterson Avenue landmark and is still in business. There was still an old Rexall sign in Fitzgerald when I was very young, in the early 1970s, but it’s long gone, as it the business it advertised.
This isn’t an advertisement, but rather an appreciation for the fact that this slice of Americana is still visible and serving its original purpose. I’m not sure when Malcolm’s opened, but my father remembers it from his days at South Georgia College, circa 1960-1962.
Downtown Douglas Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Through the efforts of Wesley Newman Raymond and Robert Richardson, the Raymond-Richardson Aviation School was established at this site in 1939, to teach basic flight skills to college students.
With America’s entrance into World War II in 1941, the school became the 63rd Flight Training Detachment Airbase.
During the war, several thousand men learned to fly here and went on to serve all over the world.
Many local women provided support as clerical and food service employees, as well as civilian dispatchers and aircraft mechanics.
The base was decommissioned in 1944 and the hangers have been incorporated into the old airfield, now known as Douglas Municipal Airport (KDHQ).
The property, now owned by the city of Douglas, has been used for numerous purposes since the end of the war.
Through the efforts of local enthusiasts, Barracks 7 is now home to the WWII Flight Training Museum, which has limited hours. The property can be accessed at any time.
This barn is located near the Wilsonville community.
Two people reached out to me to say that the old DeBerry Baptist Church was being torn down. The original chapel is around 100 years old.
There is a larger more modern facility on the property and I presumed the demolition would allow for further expansion. However, Rafe Semmes writes that the reason the church is being torn down is that the foundation has suffered extensive rot and the cost of repair was deemed too expensive to be practical.
This barn is located between Red Bluff and Jacksonville.
