I’m not sure when this was built, perhaps the late 1930s or early 1940s, but I believe it was built solely for use as a boarding house/tourist home. It is presently being deconstructed. Jesup once had many such “tourist homes” but by the 1960s most were replaced by modern motels. The Broadhurst Studio postcard (pictured below) likely dates to circa 1945-1950. The card notes the availability of a locked garages and boasts that it is a block away from the noise of highway traffic.
Willis Clary established what would become Jesup at Station Number 6 on the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad line in early 1869. He paid to have the town surveyed and built this house on City Lot #1, presumably around the time the survey was done. Clary would serve as Jesup’s first mayor. As he and wife Lucinda Hall Lee had no children of their own, his stepdaughter, Georgia Lee Whaley, eventually inherited the home.
It appears to have originated as a simple central hallway structure. Expanded over the years, it’s presently used as an office.
Laurel Gibson writes: Spent many nights here, this was my aunt,Martha Jean my uncle Harry and my two cousins Richard and Michael Burns home. After the death of my uncle and aunt 5 and 10 years ago. The remaining son Richard has it on the market now. So much fun here. My brother and I played for hours on the swing on the front porch, we would also run down the block to see the train go by. And the food, oh my goodness could my aunt cook. I wish I could buy this, my favorite home in the whole world
Nearly lost to fire in 2003, the old Atlantic Coast Line depot in Jesup was restored in 2012-2013. It now serves as one of five Amtrak passenger stations in Georgia; it’s also home to the welcome center.
Gene’s was a generator and starter service shop.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 