This is the kind of house I love to find, simple and functional, with tar paper siding and a chimney crafted of local stone. The overhanging eaves suggest it’s probably a relic of the late 19th century.
This is an historic African-American church. I can’t locate any history of the congregation at this time. The earliest burials noted in the cemetery date to the 1920s, so that might give an indication as to when the church was built.
This is an interesting old farmhouse in the County Line Baptist Church neighborhood, set back from the road on what appears to be an historic farm. The form is a bit unusual. It’s a central hallway cottage, made to look larger by a hip roof. The porch roof has been extended to the left to accommodate a carport. The sidelights would suggest the house likely dates to the late 19th century.
Historic resource surveys were unable to assign a date to this structure, but it probably dates to the late 1800s or early 1900s. Obviously, the windows have been changed. It features two front doors, typical of a time when women and men entered the sanctuary separately. It’s located in southwestern Stewart County, near the Quitman County line.
A large cemetery is located beside the church, indicating that it has been an historically large congregation. Interestingly, there are a few burials dating to the 1850s, but the vast majority date from the 1890s onward.
When I first saw this building near County Line Baptist Church, I thought it was a rare single-pen house, but looking at in perspective, I believe it may have been a precinct house. A less likely option would be that it was a store, but for now, I’m identifying it as a precinct house. In this part of Georgia, such structures are sometimes known as courthouses. If anyone knows, please share and I’ll update the post.
This has been identified locally as the Scienceville Church, and I believe it was an African-American congregation. Scienceville must have been early community in Stewart County, and I’ve since lost a reference I once had stating that there was a plantation at Scienceville before the Civil War. The name didn’t stick around too long because other than the name of the church, it’s lost to history. There was a post office in the community from 1850-1901. In the early 1900s, County Line School and a community house were located nearby. Findagrave notes that a cemetery is located at this property, and identifies the graves of Steven Weathersby (1778-1840) and his son Vincent A. Weathersby (1813-1860). It’s likely that they were the owners of the surrounding land and the plantation.
One more identified grave belongs to Rev. Eddie Smith (1907-1956). Rev. Smith was most likely the pastor of this church, but again, I have no background on any of these people. Eric Korn wrote to say that he had discovered that Rev. Eddie Smith was white.
This nice shotgun building sits behind a gate one what was likely a large farm or timber operation. To me, the placement of the windows and the fact it’s not set on piers make a proper identification difficult. I first thought it was a shotgun house, but it would probably be elevated if it were. It could also have been a commissary, but most commissaries don’t have this many windows. I hope someone knows and I’ll probably be surprised when I find out. Whatever it was, it’s a nice old building and I’m glad someone has helped it survive.
This is another amazing survivor of one of the most enduring utilitarian house types in Georgia. The saddlebag, a double-pen form, was almost always built for tenant purposes and those that remain are a reminder of lost agricultural and economic practices. The requirements of manual labor that have been vastly reduced by modern machinery meant that large landowners housed their laborers and counted that incentive as part of their pay. Sharecropping was barely better than indentured servitude and was a common form of employment. I don’t romanticize that world but I will always work to document its built environment.
This example has a nice shed room across the rear, an addition commonly found with this form.
Located in rural Stewart County, Sardis Methodist Church was established in the 1840s. According to Mr. Joe Barge, who gave us a fascinating tour of the property, the church building dates to circa 1855. It was built by Joseph Sessions (1794-1856) and his nephew, Benjamin Franklin Barge (1810-1873).
The Barge family has been a part of the congregation since its inception and much of the farm and timberland around the church has been in the family during that time. The area is known as Trotman, though appears on maps, incorrectly, as Troutman. If I recall correctly, Mr. Barge said that seven generations of his family are buried in the cemetery.
The church had fallen into serious disrepair by the 1970s. Restoration was the only option members felt was viable and the work was completed by 1982. One gets a sense of the pride that members have in their church, from the well maintained cemetery and churchyard to the interior. I believe the congregation meets just once a month now, but they’re still active and take excellent care of this special place.
Country churches like Sardis are becoming much less common these days, as families disperse from rural areas, but they’re still among the great rural landmarks of Georgia. It’s inspiring to see congregations embracing and preserving their history, and Sardis does as good a job as any I’ve seen in my travels.
Some of the most fascinating and architecturally important vernacular structures I find in my travels are hidden behind shrubs and other vegetation. I’m not one to just ignore such a place, so I have quite a few images in my archives that look very similar to this one. It’s located just north of Richland.
Since I couldn’t see all of it, I’m identifying it as a single-pen log house. A front porch was added at some point in its history, as well as a more modern roof than would have originally been associated with this type of utilitarian construction, but the overall footprint of the house looks to be original. I would date it to the last quarter of the 19th century without having more information, but it could be older than that. Log structures tend to age faster than those of more commercial design, so it’s hard to tell.