Like most rural Southern towns, Dudley was an agricultural center and cotton was one of the most important crops. This old gin looks to have been abandoned for some time. Note the water tower in the background, with the cardinal logo. I believe this may have been the mascot for the local school’s sports teams.
If you’re a fan of home-style Southern cooking you should put Miller’s Soul Food in Dublin at the top of your list to visit. They’ve been serving up food and a strong sense of community here for several generations, and you can feel the history and the love in every dish. It’s the oldest restaurant in Dublin and one of the community’s most successful Black-owned businesses.
Mrs. Nadine Miller Hunt’s mother established the restaurant in 1955 and Nadine has been running the place for over 30 years. When her husband, James L. Hunt (1934-2023), passed away recently, her daughter Shenita Hunt, who has lived in the Miami area for many years, came home to help with the restaurant’s operation. Mrs. Nadine isn’t slowing down and is the very definition of a gracious Southern lady. In 2022, Miller’s Soul Food was the only Georgia restaurant awarded a Backing Historic Small Restaurants grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
In the pantheon of Southern restaurants, the meat-and-three is king, because everyone is looking for food like their mamma made. In my experience, the search rarely yields acceptable results. But sometimes you come across a place so good that you want to share it with the world. Miller’s Soul Food isn’t just any meat-and-three. Nothing is too salty, nothing too greasy, and nothing too sweet. Perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned. None of this dumped-out-of-a-can buffet stuff here. There are plenty of regular customers who will tell you it’s the best restaurant in Dublin and I believe them.
Of course they serve all the staples, like fried chicken, ribs, fried mullet, and sides like turnips and rutabagas. I’m more a mustard and collards fan, but on the advice of a regular customer, I got the turnips and they were cooked to perfection. For the more old-school customers, they serve up oxtails, pig’s feet and other soul food classics. Each meal comes with corn muffins and an old-fashioned hoe cake, also very good.
When I first walked in the door, I was warmly welcomed by Shenita Hunt. In addition to being dedicated to the legacy of her family’s business, she’s an accomplished singer, has toured professionally, and is passionate about her work. She was happy to play some of her recordings and she’s very talented [my favorite was her cover of “At Last” by Etta James]. Her work is available for purchase at the restaurant and online. Her family also owned a nightclub, Miller’s Country Club, about ten miles outside town, and she learned many standards of American music from listening to their jukebox and watching the musicians who worked with her parents. That’s where she got the music bug. Her family strongly embraced and encouraged her artistic interests.
Miller’s Soul Food is only open Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, so you’ll have to plan. But really, you should pay them a visit.
Dublin Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The Montrose School is typical of other such facilities built before World War II. There are two date stones on the building, one from 1926 and the other from 1939. I presume the second date commemorates an expansion. E. L. Cates was principal in 1926 and J. L. Andrews held the office in 1939.
The decorative lunette above the door on the left front end of the building is its most notable architectural feature, though I’m not sure it’s original to the school.
Like the Masonic Lodge and precinct house in the preceding two posts, this structure is sided with sculptural blocks. I’m not sure of its identification, but it appears to have been a general store and/or warehouse.
I understand that the white structure on the left served as the Montrose voting precinct for many years.
This structure, which was home to the local Free & Accepted Masons, may have also served a commercial purpose.
This house once featured a porch, as best I could tell. It is situated behind three massive oaks.
This big red plastic boot served as the sign for the Cedar Grove Opry, a community gathering place located in the old Cedar Grove School. I’m not sure if the opry is still a thing, but the sign is already a landmark.
This historic schoolhouse, built in 1926 and expanded in the late 1930s, was the center of the Cedar Grove community, and after a complete restoration in 2019 still serves the area today [most recently as the Cedar Grove Opry]. The school closed in 1970.
If you’re of a certain age [like me], you remember these old merry-go-rounds from your school playground. This one still works.
This was likely the teacherage [teacher’s housing].
I’m always looking for places associated with my Browning ancestors, and while I’m not the best genealogist, much of my family history has already been traced by others. I came across this historic cemetery by accident, but was amazed to find many of the Browning family represented here. While the majority of headstones are formal, these sandstone/limestone versions are rare and wonderful examples of vernacular funerary art. Their biggest enemy is time and weather, as the names are beginning to vanish.
Silas was the son of George Browning and was married to Sara Wolfe. They had six daughters and one son.
The headstone is unique in shape in comparison with the other examples in the cemetery.
There are spelling errors on some of the headstones, as is common with vernacular examples, and Sallie Reddin could have been Sallie Redding. That’s just a guess. Her death date is not present, but since these stones all date to the 1880s, it’s safe to presume Sallie died as a young child.
I can read the word “Browning” on this stone, but all the other details have nearly vanished.
This stone features a primitive illustration, unique in the cemetery.
This stone may be readable to some. I believe I can see the word “Sissy”, but the birth and death dates are very difficult to ascertain.
I’ve included this stone for its curiosity. It isn’t related to the vernacular stones but tells a sad story. It states that young Mr. Cadwell was “Killed By Lighting with His Horse Under Him”.