A local favorite and popular stop for travelers through Thomaston since 1950, Piggie Park is an old-school drive-in specializing in barbecue, scrambled hamburgers, cheeseburgers and hot dogs, and Brunswick stew. And some people love their greasy fries. They also have handmade milkshakes. It’s a no-frills old-school place where carhops still come out and take your order, and judging by comments throughout social media, they are very efficient and always have a smile on their faces.
The original location was on the south side of town and when most of the development moved to the north side, Piggie Park moved with it. The neon sign is one of Thomaston’s most identifiable logos.
When The Founder, the movie about Ray Kroc and McDonald’s, was made a few years ago, Piggie Park was transformed into two different 1950s restaurants and used as a set location for filming.
I made this photograph in 2017 and don’t recall exactly where it was located. I know it was either on Georgia Highway 36 or 74, on the east side of Thomaston. The Art Deco building might be the work of the WPA or another New Deal agency, which would date it to the late 1930s or early 1940s, but this is just a guess. This style of architecture, considered modern and low-maintenance, was often used with governmental buildings. It’s possible that it served another purpose, but the font of the signage looks pretty authentic to the Art Deco style. I believe the Upson County Public Works department is now located elsewhere.
Danny Burks notes that this once served as a prison work camp.
This Greek Revival cottage was built on North Church Street in 1833 by John E. Pettigrew. In 1840, Benjamin B. White purchased the house and added an additional bedroom, dining room, kitchen and verandah across the rear of the structure. The Stamps family bought the house at some point in the 1880s and remained until 1968. During that year, the house was moved to its present location by the Upson Historical Society to save it from demolition. It is the second oldest house in Thomaston.
It is now a museum, open by appointment with the Upson Historical Society.
Freedmen established this historic congregation in 1867. James McGill writes in his fascinating book, The First One Hundred Years of Upson County Negro History (2017): By the summer of 1870, Reverend William Harris was sent to St. Mary AME Church in Thomaston, Georgia. Rev. Harris, the third pastor in the history of St. Mary, was born free in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1845 but was kidnapped in 1858 and sold into slavery in Georgia. He escaped to the North two years later and eventually enlisted in the Union Army.
William Harris met Rev. M. Turner, a Presiding Elder of the AME Church, on the corner of Peachtree and Whitehall Streets in Atlanta in 1866…At the Atlanta Georgia District Conference of the AME Church, Rev. Turner licensed [Harris] as an exhorter, and then presented him a preacher’s license at the Wilmington Annual Conference in Wilmington, North Carolina. Rev. Harris received some schooling at what would later become Clarke College. Rev. Harris served Atlanta’s Western Mission for two years before being presented a deacon’s license in 1870 and appointed to St. Mary in Thomaston.
It is safe to assume that Rev. Harris taught school at St. Mary AME Church. St. Mary had a new church building completed that year [1870] which provided ample room for scholars. The school operated in St. Mary at least as late as 1876. Upson County did not open a public school in Thomaston for Negro students until August 1883; St. Mary can confidently claim credit for housing the first successful church school organized for the Negroes in Upson County.
The current church building was constructed in 1905 during the pastorate of Rev. J. H. Adams. Trustees were: H. R. Rogers; Ed Hix; A. G. Cary; George Bell; William Brown; James Brown; James W. Bell; M. Drake, Sr.; and A. Holsey. The church retains its historic appearance, though stucco has been applied to the original brick.
This gristmill was built on Ten Mile Creek in 1859 by Dr. J. W. Herring (1823-1911), who named it Rose Hill Mill. Dr. Herring was a physician by trade, but was also a well-known amateur engineer, having built several covered bridges in Upson County and vicinity, including the Auchumpkee Creek Covered Bridge. Notably, Rose Hill Mill was turbine operated, as opposed to the more common water-wheel system.
The mill was purchased in 1887 by Dr. George Whitfield Telford Hannah (1841-1906), a Confederate veteran and leading Thomaston physician. Since then it has been known as Hannah’s Mill. The surrounding community, now absorbed by Thomaston, is also known as Hannah’s Mill.
D. P. Harrell was the next owner, presumably following Dr. Hannah’s death. Since 1932, it has been owned by the Joseph W. McDonald family. The mill closed in the 1970s.
Though the central gable gives this home a Gothic Revival feel, I believe it’s actually an “eclectic” Queen Anne. Knowing the date of construction would be definitive; the line between Queen Anne and Carpenter Gothic can be confusing. Whatever its “style”, it’s one of my favorite houses in Thomaston.
According to the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation: The earliest version of the Weaver-Dallas House dates to the 1820s, as a one-room house and separate doctor shop, making it the oldest house in Thomaston. Additions in the 1830s and 1840s created a 1 ½ story cottage with Federal and Classical Revival elements. Stepping on site today reveals that not much has changed since then. Located on .98 of an acre, the property includes two smoke houses, a garden shed and a 1930s car shed, and is as close to a time capsule of Georgia history as one may find today. The house has been in the same family since it was purchased by Travis Weaver in 1840.
Thanks to the efforts of the Georgia Trust, the home has a new owner.
Frank P. Milburn was the architect of this Neoclassical courthouse, which is the third to stand on this site. The first, built in 1828, was also of brick construction but of a much smaller scale.
Open almost continuously since the dawn of talking pictures, the Ritz is still in operation and shows first-run and classic movies seven days a week. It has recently been digitized and, since this photograph was made, its facade has been restored. Visit their Facebook page for schedules and more information.
There’s a nice variety of commercial architecture in downtown Thomaston. I’m really surprised the downtown historic district isn’t on the National Register. I’m not sure when this was built, or what its original use was, but for many years it was the City Drug Company.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 