Victory Tabernacle takes up pretty much all of the historic center of Flovilla and their adaptive re-use of the commercial block and adjacent storefronts probably saved these places. Storefront churches are often some of the only tenants in the abandoned downtowns I’ve been documenting for years. As with businesses, I don’t endorse churches, but that doesn’t limit me from being glad they’ve kept these old buildings alive.

One of the storefronts is one of my favorites in all of Georgia. A sign on the transom reads “Gospel Singing” and that’s flanked on either side by neon versions of the words Victory Jubilee. It’s a perfect scene. When I was making these photographs, mid-day on a Friday in October 2017, the church was meeting and I could hear gospel music coming from inside, just as the sign promised. It almost felt like a movie, surreal.

Update: Kimberly Rooker recently contacted me and shared a bit of the history of this property. She wrote, in part: “My family owned and operated the General Merchandise store on that property that you photographed in Flovilla. It is still standing as of today….but the Victory Tab[ernacle] has vacated it…sadly. My great great grandfather was JT Edwards from a pioneer family of the Jasper and Butts Co. areas. I showed my daughter the store last year…..just as my dad showed me the store front in 1989. There is a ton of history on the Edwards family in Flovilla/Indian Springs that was passed down to me orally when I was a child by my grandmother...”