This house has a lot of potential, but it’s been boarded up for quite a while.
Folk Victorian House, Eastman
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Category Archives: –DODGE COUNTY GA–
Garage, Chester
I presume this was a garage or utility barn of some kind.
Folk Victorian House, Empire
This photograph dates to 2009 and I’m not sure if the house survives. I never published it, hoping to return later for a better view, but I never made it. It’s a simple hip-roof house with Queen Anne porch posts.
Empire was a sawmill town, which was established circa 1887 and incorporated in 1911. The name was meant to attract newcomers, but never had the desired effect. The Empire post office operated from 1887-1965. It’s a few miles south of Cochran, and part of the community lies in Bleckley County.
Giddens School, Dodge County
The signage on the porch gable displays the years 1883, 1947, and 1985. I believe the school was established in 1883 and closed in 1947. This schoolhouse does not date to 1883 but was probably built circa 1910s-1920s to replace an earlier building. 1985 was perhaps the date the signage was placed, or the year of a reunion.
Saddlebag Farmhouse, Dodge County
The saddlebag is a double-pen form which is almost always associated with tenant and sharecropping operations. It uses one chimney to heat both sides of the house.
Each room is a mirror image of the other. This example, like many, features a shed room across the rear of the structure.
Central Hallway Farmhouse, Dodge County
Free Gift Missionary Baptist Church, Dodge County
This historic Black congregation may have been established in the 1910s, as the earliest identifiable burials in the adjacent cemetery are circa 1919. There are several vernacular headstones present, including the three crosses that follow.
Katie Mumford (birth and death dates unknown)
George Lockett (birth and death dates unknown)
Harrett (sic; Harriet) Lockett (birth and death dates unknown)
Gabled-Ell Farmhouse, Dodge County
Queen Anne Farmhouse, Dodge County
This is the second house of this style I’ve come across in my rambles in Dodge County over the years. It is a wonderful vernacular interpretation of the popular Queen Anne style, likely dating to the late 19th or early 20th century. The other, at Suomi, has recently collapsed.
Unidentified Buildings, Dodge County
This structure near New Daniels Baptist Church is a bit of a mystery to me. There are remnants of old signs on the front but they are unreadable.
The signs made me think of a store or commissary, but the layout of the structure doesn’t necessarily support that. It has been patched at some point and it’s hard to ascertain whether what looks like a door on the gable end was actually a window. If a door, it would certainly be akin to store/commissary design.
The ruins of another structure across the road definitely have a commercial appearance.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 