Susan L. Jack writes: …thanks for posting these beautiful photos of my grandparents’ home. Although the Laniers lived there longer than anyone else, it was officially known as the Prescott house (or more typically, “place”). The house was built by my great-grandfather Dr. Jesse Prescott, father of Smae and Blanche who grew up there.
Lawrence Arthur Wisenbaker deeded right-of-way to the Georgia Southern & Florida Railroad in the 1880s, insuring the success of the community, which was known as Twin Lakes until 1890. In the early 20th century, the Palmer Brothers’ Turpentine Still and Ewell Brown’s Lake Park Manufacturing Company, a cotton gin, were two of the largest businesses. Lake Park’s history is largely tied to agriculture and cotton has made a comeback, but the big crop here is carrots. Along with nearby Echols County, Lake Park is the “Carrot Capital of the South”.
Dr. E. Taylor operated this as a pharmacy and general store throughout the 1890s. It was built by the Lake Park Improvement Company, a local investment group. Ewell Brown, who worked here as a pill roller and assistant operator, purchased the store in 1899 with his brother, Bob Brown. When Ewell gained controlling interest and bought the Lake Park Bank in 1948, Bob operated the store until its closure in 1953. In 1994, Bob Brown’s daughter, Leslie Brown Taylor, donated the building to the Lake Park Historical Society for use as a museum.
Lake Park’s beautiful Christian Church dates to the earliest days of the settlement. It was founded in 1878 and church, which was originally located at the site of the old Lake Park Cemetery, was moved by mules in 1922 to its present site.
This has been restored. It’s known as the old post office but I wonder if it also served as a store at some time.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 