This is located on an otherwise empty lot across Hyers Street from the old educational complex. I don’t know anything about it, but I’m sharing it because I like barns and shed, and especially when they’re sided in red “tar paper” or more properly, false brick siding. William Christenberry‘s photograph “Red Building in Forest, Hale County, Alabama” is one of the images that inspired me to begin this project 15 years ago.
Structures of this nature, even when used as a primary residence, are referred to as garage apartments, and were considered very modern in the 1920s and 1930s, the height of their popularity. Variations are still being built today. They featured a garage on the lower level and an apartment, usually a bedroom, bathroom, and combined living area and kitchen on the upper level. Since most were part of properties that featured a primary residence, they were often rental properties. In a sense, they were the carriage houses of the early automobile era. Surviving examples are often still used for rental income or as guest houses.
This building sits about a block behind the old Patterson High School. It could have been anything from a vocational annex to an elementary school building. The whole area at the corner of Williams Street and Hyers Street is one large educational campus. I will update as soon as I know more and would be grateful for any information.
The old Patterson High School has been nicely restored and is great example of a community saving an important element of its past. It’s now known as Eagle Station and is home to city offices and public use spaces, as well. For a small town, this is a big win. My best guess is that it was built in the 1920s or 1930s. The Spanish Mission Revival influence in the architecture was commonly used in school architecture during that time.
This is the old Patterson High School gymnasium. It’s in better shape than most of the surviving wooden gymnasiums built before World War II. Basketball was usually the biggest sport in rural communities in the first half of the 20th century and this was the home of the Patterson High Eagles. I believe it was built in the 1930s [early 1940s at the latest].
Carol Harper writes: My Grandaddy, John Henry Harris, built this cotton gin along with gins in Jesup, Cordele, and Sylvester. My father, William H. (Bill) Cooper, managed the Patterson Gin and was chief ginner there for many years. After my Grandaddy’s death and the devastation of cotton crops by the boll weevil, the gin was dismantled, my parents purchased the business, and what was once a cotton gin became a farm supply and custom fertilizer spreading operation. My two younger brothers, Bill Jr. and Charlie, and I considered ourselves very fortunate to have grown up surrounded by the sight and smell of King Cotton. Our Mother, Jean Harris Cooper, managed the gin office while Daddy ginned the cotton. Today, once again, I am proud to write cotton grows on my farm in Pierce County.
These storefronts, apparently long abandoned, are located just east of Railroad Avenue on Georgia Highway 32.
Update: As of 2015, the iconic signage on this landmark had been removed. As of at least 2022, the building is also gone.