Henry Lee “Baby Doll” Gorham (1951-2020) was a professionally trained artist who earned a degree from the Art Institute of Atlanta in 1984. With roots in Telfair County, he returned to the community after his time in Atlanta. He became an accomplished folk artist, gaining recognition for his paintings of Small Grove, Georgia, a mythical town of his creation.
This mural is located on a building in downtown McRae.
South Georgians love their seafood and most small towns have at least one fishmonger. It’s a hard business to maintain away from the coast, though.
The granitoid front and arched door likely date this to the first couple of decades of the 20th century. John R. Smith writes: “Underneath the painted arch where it appears to be a window and door,was once the main door where a truck could enter. This warehouse belonged to Mr. Anderson in the 1940’s and was used to store and sell fertilizer, feed and seed.“
Ryals Drug Store is an independent pharmacy and gift shop of the kind that could once be found in every small town. It’s a well-loved McRae landmark.
Ron Monroe, Sr., writes: This store front caught my eye because I first saw it after retiring to my childhood home of Helena, GA. It confused me because the name of my father’s business was Telfair Utilities Service Company in Helena, not McRae. A few months ago one of my borthers gave me the answer. Lewis Joyner had been an employee of my father, and after my father had closed his business in Helena to take a civil service job, Lewis asked my father if he could use the name for a business in McRae.
Judy Harris writes that this was the Pitts Service Station. She notes it was more a garage than a service station at the time, but later just sold gas. She also recalls that Ralph Evans had an upholstery shop in the back of the building.
This congregation was organized in 1880.
On the Gene Theatre’s opening night gala in 1951, the feature was Two Weeks in Love starring Jane Powell. Jimmie Batchelor, who kindly shared this historic snapshot, notes: “I had many dates at that theater, spending my teenage summers with my grandmother, James Margaret Hughes Pullen.” She adds: “The Gene Theatre was such an important ‘hang out’ for us, especially on Sunday evenings.“
Janice Green Scruggs recalls: “The Gene Theatre was “the” place for everything going on in McRae back in the late ’50 and early ’60′s. All the kids/teenagers had to make their weekend showing there no matter what was showing. You didn’t go for the movie, you went to be seen and socialize, to meet boys/girls and have something to do on Saturday…it was great times, wonderful memories.“
Recently recognized as a “Place in Peril” by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the Gene Theatre is one of Georgia’s most unique movie houses. Architect Bernard Webb, Jr., designed the theatre to honor Telfair native and four-time Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge. The facade originally featured a diagonal tartan pattern behind the script lettering. Closed as a theatre in the 1970s and subsequently used as an auditorium, the historic interior features were sold in the 1990s and the building has gone into serious decline in the interim.
John Wayne McRae notes that this was the home of Maxwell Lamar McRae (1875-1951) & Emma Sue Griffith McRae (1875-1972). He adds: Judge McRae read law under the Honorable Tom Eason and was admitted to the bar in 1895. In 1902 he was appointed city judge by Governor Terrell, a position he held until 1907. He was Secretary and Treasurer of the McRae Grocery Co., which he organized in 1906 and President of the Telfair Fertilizer Company, which he organized on 1910. In 1921 he returned to farming, owning about 3,000 acres of land. He was a member of the Georgia Legislature from 1898-1899, served as Mayor of McRae for several terms and was vice-president of the board of trustees of South Georgia College. He was a 1st Lieutenant during the Spanish-American War. Judge McRae was also a co-founder of Brewton Parker College in Mt.Vernon.
National Register of Historic Places