Thanks to Luke Moses for the identification.
Farmer House, Louisville
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Category Archives: Louisville GA
J. C. Little House, Circa 1870, Louisville
At the corner of Mulberry & 7th Streets stands this gigantic old house that is not to be missed when in Louisville. It’s presently for sale, I believe, but is in immediate need of stabilization. It would be a real shame to see this house lost. The original wooden shingles are even visible beneath the mid-20th-century roof and a quick scan of the realtor listing shows a beautiful staircase and interior that isn’t beyond saving.
Patty Romer Guill: My great-grandfather James Cain Little built the house in the 1870s or 80s. My grandfather sold it around 1920 (don’t know the buyer) when he built the red brick house on the corner of Green and 7th.
Kenneth McDaniel: My Grandmother (McDaniel) owned the house from about 1940 til her death in 1985. From my understanding, it was built in 1867-70. She had converted the right side of the porch (as you look at it) into her ‘beauty salon’ which was her primary source of income.
Update: This house was struck by lightning on 20 July 2020 and was completely destroyed.
Abbot & Stone Mercanitle, 1890, Louisville
This was later known as the Stone & Murphy Building, the Murphy Brothers and Beall Building, the Louisville Furniture Company, and the Harris Furniture Company. In 1937, the rear portion of the building was sold to the City of Louisville to house the city’s offices, a fire station, and jail. It remains the most distinctive commercial building downtown, thanks to a recent restoration by Jonathan Barnhart.
Louisville Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Market House, 1790s, Louisville
Long known as the “Old Slave Market” this structure is the oldest and best known in Louisville. For years it was said to have been built in 1758 at the intersection of Native American trading roads but recent research suggests it was built during the 1790s as a general market for the newly-founded city. Restored in the 1990s, it still includes some of its original timbers.
Perhaps, at the height of Reconstruction and the ensuing Jim Crow era, calling it a “slave market” was just a way to symbolize segregation in a physical space. Human beings were likely sold here and that should be known but it obviously served a more general purpose and the removal of “slave” from the name is an enlightened, if controversial, evolution in the historical record.
This historic marker, placed by the City of Louisville, reads: This Market House was built between 1795-1798 as a publicly owned multi-purpose trading house. Louisville newspapers record sales of large tracts, household goods, town lots and slaves by sheriffs, tax collectors, marshals and people of the community at the Market House. The square became the hub of transportation routes that centered on Louisville when the State Capital was located here (1794-1807). Although portions of the structure have been replaced, the Market House has never lost its distinctive style. Inside the Market House hangs a bell that was cast in France for a New Orleans Convent in 1772. The ship carrying the bell was sacked by pirates and the bell was sold in Savannah. It was given to the State Capitol but was used in the Market House as a community warning signal.
Louisville Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Knights of Pythias Lodge, Louisville
The two-story brick building was once home to the Knights of Pythias; today it serves as the Museum and Archives of the Jefferson County Historical Society.
Sheldon Daitch writes: A little more history on the building which now houses the Jefferson County Historical Society. My earliest recollections of that building (early 1950s) is that the ground floor was Goldfarb’s Department Store, owned by Leon and Zelda Goldfarb. At some point, they move out of Louisville and my father moved his clothing store, Daitch Department Store, from the one story dark green fronted building to the two story building, pretty much doubling the floor space for the store.
After the old Daitch location was emptied, Sam Clark opened a hardware store, run first by Sam, senior, and then Sam junior ran it for a number of years.
The Historical Society took over the building at some point after my father retired and closed up the store. I do not know if there was any occupant in the ground floor between Dad’s store closure and the Historical Society’s occupancy.
Also note the brick wall between the two sets of display windows. When my Dad had the property, that brick wall was actually an entrance to the stairway for the second floor occupants. I believe the Historical Society closed up that outside entrance and then made an entryway to the stairs from inside the building.
Louisville Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
First National Bank, 1919, Louisville
Louisville Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Pal Theater, Circa 1950, Louisville
The Louisville Pal Theater is a true relic. To find a movie house from this era still hanging on in the instant media era is something one doesn’t expect. I was amazed to find current movies being shown, as well as someone working the ticket window. It was like something in a movie to me. The Pal Amusement Company (Pete Brice & Margaret Ladson) ran a small chain of Pal Theaters in the early 1960s all over southeast Georgia, in towns like Glennville, Hinesville, Lyons, Vidalia, Soperton, Millen and Mt. Vernon. Pat Crawford notes on the Vanishing South Georgia Facebook page that there was also an Abbeville location and Karen Carrow Dees says the Pal Theater in Vidalia still screens classics.
If you find yourself in the area for an evening, you might want to check out a show. The Pal is located at 134 West Broad Street, in the heart of Louisville’s historic district. Call (478) 625-9998 for show and schedule information.
Louisville Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, 1914, Louisville
From the Louisville ARP church website: The beginnings of Louisville Presbyterian Church date to around 1778. A Scotchman named George Galphin established a trading post at a settlement first called Ogeechee. Eventually the settlement was relocated nine miles up river to a place called New Town. In 1795, the legislative commission selected New Town as the capital of Georgia. The Presbyterian community established various meetinghouses around the area from which three main churches developed, Bethel, Ebenezer, and Louisville. When the capital was moved from Louisville in 1806, the town declined and the Louisville church became inactive. The building was given over to the Methodists. The Louisville ARP Church was formally organized in 1874 under the leadership of Dr. A.L. Patterson. During the tenure of Dr. J. C. Galloway, the first building was erected around 1878 or 1880. The first church burned in 1911 and a new building was erected in 1914.
WPA Post Office, 1939, Louisville
The cornerstone notes that Louis A. Simon was the Supervising Architect and Neal A. Melick was the Supervising Engineer. All the WPA/New Deal post offices have a similar appearance but for some reason this is one of my favorites. A 1941 oil on canvas work by Abraham Harriton entitled “Plantation, Transportation, Education” was interestingly removed from the facility in 1987 on orders of the then-postmaster to a visitors center at the Old Mill in Augusta. I don’t know if is still there or if it’s been returned.
A photograph of the painting by Jimmy Emerson, who has tirelessly documented these for years, can be seen here.
Historic Banks & Storefronts, Louisville
The building on the far left was built as a bank in 1893 and later was home to the local library. Thanks to Luke Moses, whose father’s law office is now located here, for the identification. The two-story sandstone-colored building with Ionic columns is the old Bank of Louisville building, circa 1900.
Louisville Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places