I often see vintage automobiles when I’m in Musella. This one brought back a lot of memories. For those who don’t recognize it, or even know what a station wagon is, it’s a circa 1967 Ford County Squire, which was the top of the line of Ford station wagons and perhaps the most popular American automobile of its type. It was an evolution of the woody wagons of the 1930s and 1940s. Eventually, mini-vans replaced station wagons.
When I was growing up my grandmother always had one at the farm. My grandfather had all the usual trucks necessary for farming operations and my grandmother always had a station wagon, until she got older. I remember the last one was red and wood grain and it always seemed so big to my younger self.
A lot of people pass by places like this and don’t realize their significance. Country stores were necessary not only for household needs but as community centers in rural locations. One might wonder today how these places ever survived, so far out in the country, but they often thrived.
This old general store is located west of Roberta. It’s still serving the community, albeit in a different way, as the Greenway Farms Market store.
Wright Avenue, the heart of downtown Roberta. The Benjamin Hawkins monument is in the foreground. The two-story building at left was the Crawford County Bank and the Bank of Roberta from 1900-1928 and the post office from 1929-1962.
When the Atlanta & Florida Railway bypassed Knoxville in 1888, opting to build a depot about a mile away, the settlement of Roberta began. It was originally known as New Knoxville, after the county seat. When Hiram David McCrary (1847-1912) and James Mathews gave the right of way for the railroad, McCrary, who was also an active entrepreneur, was allowed to choose a name for it. He chose Roberta, in honor of his daughter*. *-Mattie Roberta McCrary Champion (1881-1977)
General Store, circa 1890s. In 1922, it became the R. E. Bankston Store.
The old Bankston Store is a great example of restoration. It’s located adjacent to the bank/post office building.
Roberta Drugs (I found the photo). This is the oldest operating business in Roberta.
The corner entrance was a popular commercial style in the early 20th century.
East Agency Street, named for the Creek Agency headquartered here in the days of Benjamin Hawkins.
I made these photos a few years ago, so some of these business have been repainted. For a small town, Roberta does a good job of maintaining its historic commercial structures and still uses them all, as best I can see. I don’t encounter that in many places.
West Agency Street
Roberta Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Hortman’s is more recent than some of the places I’ve documented, but typical of rural stores like this. They sold hunting and fishing supplies, as well as fresh cut meat and homemade sausage.
A sign identifies this amazing survivor as the Lee Pope Hotel. It was primarily used as housing for Pearson Farms’ seasonal peach workers.
All the structures of the Lee Pope Fruit Farm should be included in the National Register of Historic Places as an important example of a 20th century Georgia peach farm.
According to the Pearson Farm website, the Lee Pope House came with the farm when the property was purchased by John and Rosa Lee Pearson. They raised their family here.
Around 1910, the Pearson family purchased the tremendous Lee Pope Fruit Farm and its peach packing operation here. It included numerous tenant houses, this commissary, a “hotel” which housed seasonal workers (really a dormitory), a packing house (now gone), and numerous barns and sheds. At one time, the Pearson peaches were branded “Big 6”. The family’s long-term preservation of this property provides an important historic lesson of the importance of the peach industry in this section of Middle Georgia and she be commended.
The packinghouse at Dickey Farms is the oldest continuously operating facility of its kind in Georgia. Built in 1936 from lumbers hewn on land owned by “Mr. Bob” Dickey, it’s the most prominent structure in Musella and a real icon of Georgia’s most famous crop. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s the center of life in this friendly little Middle Georgia town. If you pass through here when peaches aren’t in season, you might think it’s a ghost town, but when they are in season, it’s like a small metropolis. Everything here revolves around peaches. The season runs from the middle of May through the second week of August and Dickey Farms is open seven days a week. When I walked onto the “porch” at the packinghouse I was greeted by baskets full of these beautiful June Princes, a variety of Semi-Freestone that gets plump and sweet around the 10th of June.
A bit of history from the Dickey Farms website*: Robert L. “Mr. Bob” Dickey was an early pioneer of “multi-tasking”, being a postmaster, undertaker, depot agent and general store manager. However, his heart was in the peach industry, and we are reaping the rewards today.
In the early days of Dickey Farms mules were used to plow the orchards and also for transportation of peaches to the packinghouse. At that time, most of the work was done manually. However, “Mr. Bob” was a forward-thinker, always wanting to introduce labor saving equipment. He installed Georgia’s very first brushing machine to remove the peach fuzz. He was also one of the first producers to include a hydro-cooling system that places peaches in 35-degree water to remove field dust and slow the ripening process, making them perfect when reaching the northern markets.
Today, his grandson, Robert L. Dickey, II and his great-grandson, Robert L. Dickey, III, work together to ensure that a Dickey Farms peach is the freshest, most succulent fruit available. While “Mr. Bob” shipped all his fruit by refrigerated railroad cars, peaches today are shipped by refrigerated trucks, which can reach some markets overnight. Although many changes in the industry have been made over the last 100 years, the Dickey family still continues the tradition of providing the highest quality peach.
* Though the packinghouse dates to 1936, Dickey Farms has been involved in local agriculture since 1897.
The “porch” is filled with old-fashioned rocking chairs and plenty of ceiling fans. Numerous products made with Dickey Farms’ Georgia peaches can be found throughout. I bought pickled peaches, peach preserves, peach gumballs for the kids, and my friend bought some peach bread and syrup. If you love peaches, Dickey Farms will not disappoint. Fresh local produce is also for sale when available.
The sweet corn looked really good.
And though the peaches are the main attraction here, the grading, sizing and sorting operation is a wonder in itself.
The Autoline Fruit Sizing System, renovated in 2010, begins by maneuvering the peaches into a single layer instead of piled atop each other, then lining them up in single rows so they can be sized. A computerized optical sizer sorts the peaches and distributes them for packing into awaiting boxes.
Even with mechanization, the peach industry is still quite labor intensive.
It’s amazing to see such a process. So many people only know food as something from the grocery store, but at this packinghouse, everyone gets a lesson of how much work goes into our food supply. I noticed this father and his daughters enjoying the view with some homemade peach ice cream, one of the most popular products at Dickey Farms.
Just don’t forget your peaches! The employees are all very friendly and courteous and can easily answer any questions you might have. This place is a real treasure.
Visit the website for specifics and directions to Musella, as well as information on specific varieties and ripe dates. And if you can’t make it to Musella, you can order directly from Dickey Farms online.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 