This is one of my earliest photographs for Vanishing Georgia, made in 2008, and I imagine the place is long gone. It was located on TV Towers Road. This is the back side of the structure; there was no other way to photograph it. I thought it a bit unusual then and still do, but I have encountered a few tenant structures with this boxy hip roof elsewhere. I’m identifying it as a tenant house because I can’t imagine what else it could be.
It’s been quite awhile since I visited Berlin (BUR-luhn) down in Colquitt County, but I’m told most of the old buildings I photographed are still standing. This one, which featured in another one of my Berlin photographs from 2013, has quite the history. The architectural style [shotgun] leads me to believe it was originally a general store of one kind or another, but it’s best remembered as General Browning’s barber shop. Wes Carter wrote to say that there was a red, white, and blue barber pole out front. More recently, it served as the Berlin Diner, whose faded sign is barely visible here. Surveys I consulted date the building to 1950, but I think it’s at least 20 years older.
This imposing villa was built by the nationally-renowned Moultrie architect William Frank McCall, Jr., for his friend Robert Byrd “Brother” Wright, Jr. It is more than just an unusually formal home for South Georgia; its facade was rescued from the old Paramount Theatre, an Atlanta landmark designed by the great classicist Philip Trammell Shutze. The Paramount, which opened in 1920 as the Howard Theatre, was demolished in 1960. A wonderful book about the house and its quirky history, Twice Told Tales of a Southern Palazzo, was written by McCall’s nephew, John Clark McCall, Jr. John has been a delightful correspondent and very helpful in sharing the legacy of his uncle Frank.
According to a synopsis published on their website, Mother Easter Baptist Church was founded in 1894 by Rev. James O. Kelley, Alex Deberry, C.W. Hall, Sim Baker, Will Peterson and R.W. Ramsey. The original site was on a 1875 foot lot located in Northeast Moultrie near the Tifton-Thomasville, Georgia Railroad Company.
The church is named in honor of the woman(Mother Easter) who gave the founders permission, before the original site was built, to hold services in her home. Today information about Mother Easter is limited; however, it is believed that she is the same Easter Smith on the 1900 population census for Colquitt County whom records corroborate was a sixty-five year old widow who owned her own home and worked as a domestic in the home of Daniel Horne.
Rev. James O. Kelley was the first pastor of the church. He was a dynamic minister and worked diligently to build his congregation. In 1898, Rev. Kelley resigned and George H. Hunter became the second pastor. In 1903 there was a fire and a new church was built on Third Street and services were held on first and third Sundays.
On January 25,1905 the new church and the pastor’s home was destroyed by a fire. On March 17, 1906, conference convened and the members decided to construct a new church. On March 22, 1906, the property on the corner of Second Avenue and Fourth Street Northwest, where the historic church now stands, was purchased from Issac M.D. Turner.
A new church as completed in 1985 and remains in use today.
I’m grateful to Mandy Green Yates for making me aware of this wonderful structure.
Moultrie Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The Knight family opened this seafood market in 1937. The iconic sign may be nearly as old as the business itself. Charles Knight continued the tradition and kept Colquitt County supplied with the best fresh seafood available. The market closed in 2015, after nearly 80 years in business.
Moultrie Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The television and VCR repairman is certainly a vanishing occupation, if it’s not gone already. I made this shot in 2008. A sign just inside the entryway noted that Leon was an authorized Sylvania Tee-Vee repairman.
I photographed this in 2009, somewhere on the Crosland-Scooterville Road. I’m not sure if it was in Colquitt or Worth County nor if it’s still standing.
This is one of three stores I photographed in Crosland in 2008. Two remain, including this one, but the owners have painted it solid gray, even the awnings. I’m amazed that Crosland was such a busy place at one time. This photograph dates to 2008.