This exquisite Queen Anne cottage was built by Capt. Newton P. Carreker (1830-1918), who was among the last surviving Confederate veterans of Talbot County. It’s usually to referred to locally as the “Liberty Bell House” for the cutout in the center gable.
National Register of Historic Places
This photograph dates to 2009 and as of 2016 it’s still standing but very overgrown. I’ve been trying to identify this Greek Revival cottage, which I knew to be early, for almost a decade. Thanks to Luke Moses, who shared this: According to William Davidson’s A Rockaway in Talbot (Volume I, pp. 86-88), this is the Radcliff-Spivey House, built about 1835. This confirms the early date and makes even more critical the need for its stabilization.
This beloved landmark was built as the LeVert College for Young Women by Lazarus Straus (1809-1898), a Belgian merchant whose business was the forerunner of the Macy’s chain. This was a Methodist school and merged with Collinsworth Institute in 1879. It closed in 1907 and was used as a public school until 1926. Many years after moving away from Talbotton and founding Macy’s, the Straus family made gifts to ensure the preservation of this important structure. Madame Octavia Walton LeVert (1810-1877), for whom the LeVert Female College was named, was the granddaughter of George Walton, a Georgia Signer of the Declaration of Independence.
LeVert Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This lot has been reserved since Talbotton’s founding in 1828 for the Baptist Church. The present structure is an unusual style (Spanish Colonial Revival, stripped-down) for Georgia churches. The church appears so “modern” that I was surprised to learn it’s over 90 years old.
Recently restored, this beautiful Queen Anne courthouse was designed by the firm of Bruce & Morgan.
National Register of Historic Places
These are located on the courthouse square.
Talbotton’s Episcopal community never numbered more than twelve families, but their Tudor Gothic church stands as a wonderful testament to them nearly 170 years after its construction. The church retains its original slave galleries and boxed pews. A Pilcher organ, installed in 1850, is the oldest of its variety still in continuous use in the United States. Quarterly services are held here and all are welcome to attend. Find out more about the schedule on the Zion Episcopal Church Facebook page.
Jeff Liipfert recalls: I used to hand pump the pipe organ during services here many years ago when I was a little boy. The priest from Fort Valley would go to Talbotton one Sunday afternoon a month to hold services. My mother was the church organist in Fort Valley. She and the choir from Fort Valley would go along also. That’s how I ended up pumping the organ. I could see my mother from where I pumped the organ, so a choir member sitting at the corner of the organ had to give me a signal to start pumping and fill the bellows before my mother started playing. They had to keep that lead weight above a certain mark to assure that there was enough air in the organ.
National Register of Historic Places
From the Historical Marker placed by the South Georgia Conference of the Methodist Church in 1978: As Methodism moved across Georgia, in 1830 Jesse Sinclair and Henry W. Hilliard were sent by the South Carolina Methodist Conference to the Flint River Mission of which Talbot Co. was a part. In 1831 this circuit became a part of the newly formed Georgia Conference and by 1834 Talbotton became a separate Charge. Upon the incorporation of Talbotton on 20 December 1828 a lot was set aside for a Methodist Church and deed to it on 25 June 1831. Soon a substantial wooden church was erected. In 1857 this building was replaced by the present handmade brick church constructed by Miranda Fort. Among the oldest original brick churches of the South Georgia Conference, it is an outstanding example of Greek Revival Temple Architecture.
I made this photo in 2013.