Category Archives: –MACON COUNTY GA–

Five Points Grocery, Macon County

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Exterior view of Five Points Grocery with a Pepsi sign, surrounded by trees and a dirt road.

Five Points Grocery is located at a busy curve on Georgia Highway 26, and though I had passed it many time on earlier travels, I had never stopped until a recent trip to Columbus. As Mike McCall and I were photographing the little shotgun building, one of the co-owners, Naomi Weaver, waved and invited us inside. The store was closed that day for the preparations for a community wedding, but she was a gracious host, not rushed or bothered by all our questions.

Exterior view of Five Points Grocery, an iconic country store, located near Montezuma on Georgia Highway 26.

Naomi related that she didn’t know a lot of the specific history of the building, but I gathered it was likely built in the 1920s or 1930s. It would have likely been the retail anchor of the nearby Flint River Farms, a New Deal resettlement project that helped area farmers build homes and buy property in the darkest days of the Great Depression.

Naomi Weaver, in a gray sweatshirt with 'WHERE YOU BELONG' printed on it stands behind a counter filled with various items at Five Points Grocery.

It’s rare to find stores like this today, and even rarer to find them vibrant and still at the heart of their communities. While the owners have added a storage area at the back of the building, which Naomi was rightfully proud of, the interior of the store itself is largely unchanged from what it would have looked like over half a century ago.

Interior of a small grocery store featuring a display of various bread packages on a shelf, with a menu board labeled 'Mom's Kitchen' visible in the background.

Naomi noted that Mom’s Kitchen, which serves early breakfasts to scores of busy farmers and farmhands, was one of the biggest draws at Five Points Grocery.

Interior of Five Points Grocery featuring shelves stocked with snacks, a Pepsi vending machine, and seating area with blue chairs. A wall clock is visible.

This part of the store is reserved for anyone who just wants to sit around and shoot the breeze. In that way, it’s as authentic as any country store I’ve found. With the instantly gratified and hurried world that technology and mass market retail have wrought, it really is rewarding to come across places like Five Points Grocery and people like Naomi Weaver.

Interior of Five Points Grocery featuring shelves stocked with various food items and beverages, with taxidermy deer heads mounted on the wall.

This is deep in Macon County Mennonite country, and if you aren’t familiar, the Mennonites of Macon County have been known for their hospitality and good food for a couple of generations. Alva and Sara Yoder opened the landmark Yoder’s Deitsch House and Bakery just up the road toward Montezuma in July 1984 and its been a destination for people from all over the region since then. On the day we visited with Naomi, we also stopped at Yoder’s and it was packed as usual.

Interior of Five Points Grocery featuring a drink cooler filled with various beverages, a cash register area, a chair, and deer mounts on the walls.

Single-Pen Cottage, Montezuma

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I’m always fascinated by single-pen cottages, and while this one was later expanded by the addition of a second room, the original section, at left, is a great example of this humble form. This home is located in the Duncan’s Bottom neighborhood and appears to have been abandoned for quite some time.

St. Paul Primitive Baptist Church, 1930, Montezuma

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St. Paul Primitive Baptist Church was built in 1930 and is the oldest surviving church structure in the historically African-American Montezuma neighborhood known as Duncan’s Bottom. It is centered around Whiteline Street. The church is located adjacent to Mount Pleasant Cemetery. The Black Primitive Baptists, while not as well known as the Missionary Baptist or the African Methodist Episcopal churches, had similar origins. Most congregations evolved out of white congregations to which members were exposed in the days of slavery.

St. Paul is critically endangered at this time, as the roof has collapsed through the middle of the sanctuary. I’m not sure if the congregation is still active.

Barn & Silo, Macon County

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I made this photograph in the Garden Valley area in 2009.

Shed, Macon County

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This curious structure has been a landmark to me when traveling from Marshallville toward Talbot County for many years. It’s in the Garden Valley community. I’d love to know its purpose. I made the photograph a few years ago but I believe it’s still standing.

Directional Signpost, Oglethorpe

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Multi-directional signposts like this one are usually found in tourist locations, so I was surprised to see this one in a yard in Oglethorpe.

Sandwiched between the far-flung locations of Kennebunkport, Maine, and Key West, Florida, is the Piggly Wiggly, 3/10ths of a mile distant.

General Store, Oglethorpe

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I made this photo a few years ago. I think it was near the old New York Store just outside Oglethorpe. I’m identifying it as a general store, thought it looks like it may have been something else more recently. Some of my Brown relatives in Macon County (maiden name in this case) once owned a store in the country, according my father and aunt, and I’ve been looking through a lot of photographs trying to find out if it’s still standing. I have no idea of the name, or even a precise location. Places like this were once landmarks in the areas they served, so no matter how simple they are I try to document them when I see them.

Shotgun Store, Oglethorpe

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The first time I photographed this building, about 15 years ago, it was painted yellow and known as the Court House Deli. It’s located across the street from the Macon County Courthouse. It’s now known as the Bowlegged Grill and was still open the last time I was in the area. I believe it was a originally a store or office and is typical of the shotgun form buildings that were once common as commercial and office spaces.

Greek Revival Storefront, Oglethorpe

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This building has always intrigued me. Tax records date it to 1900, but its Greek Revival design suggests it’s likely older than that. It’s definitely older than other commercial buildings in Oglethorpe. The floor plan appears from the exterior to be a double-shotgun form, but this may have been a modification. The left side has a window flanked by two doors, and the right side has the more typical configuration of a door flanked by two windows. The building is five bays deep, with narrowly spaced 9 over 9 windows. At the time of this photograph (2009), the commercial spaces were occupied by Tyson’s Wings, and Haddock Sister Designer Hats. I hope to learn the history.

Jule Windham House, Circa 1910, Montezuma

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This impressive Neoclassical Revival landmark is just a few steps up the sidewalk from the McKenzie House, with an English Vernacular Revival cottage in between the two.

Montezuma Historic District, National Register of Historic Places