Roscoe Peoples built this Sinclair Gas station in 1935, in the Mediterranean Revival style often associated with the roadside architecture of the time. In recent years it was home to John Lindsey’s service station and the Snake Hunters Club. John Lindsey was a well-known snake collector who milked venomous species for the manufacture of antivenom. The structure has been restored and now serves as the Oak Park City Hall.
Over 80 of Swainsboro and Emanuel County’s earliest settlers are buried in this secluded downtown cemetery. It’s a great space for quiet reflection and if you’re a taphophile, you’ll enjoy it.
The triumphant arch marks the graves of John Calhoun Coleman (28 October 1844-1 January 1923) and wife Martha Sarah “Mattie” Moring Coleman (21 April 1858-15 September 1926). The angel memorializes their daughter, Juanita Coleman Smith (16 March 1874-18 May 1910). Mr. Coleman was one of the most prominent men in Emanuel County during his lifetime and was a Confederate veteran. He served in Company H, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, taking part in the Seven Days Battle, first and second battles of Cold Harbor, Harper’s Ferry, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, first and second battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and finally at Manassas Gap, where he was captured and held as a prisoner until the end of the war.
John Coleman Mitchell (25 April 1897-21 January 1901). Grandson of John Calhoun Coleman.
Becki L. Stroud writes: This store was once owned by Malley Houston Peebles who sold it to his younger brother Cicero Talmadge Peebles. Malley Peebles moved closer to Swainsboro, Georgia, and opened the long gone Southern Pines Tourist Camp on U.S. Hwy 1. I believe the building dates back to around the 1920s. My grandparents were married there by a justice of the peace.
Like many commissaries, this may have also served the area as a general store.
Though not as large, this barn has similar characteristics, and therefore influences, of the famed Big Barns of Southeast Georgia. The trellis work is the defining feature of this barn.
