Equalization-era school buildings that primarily served as Douglass Elementary School still remain on a campus that also included part of Douglass High School, Thomasville’s historic Black high school. It was named for Frederick Douglass, who had visited Thomasville in 1895.
Douglass High School was demolished when local schools were fully integrated in 1970, but the elementary school remained in used thereafter. The Douglass Alumni Association purchased the complex from the city in the early 2000s. The property is known as the Frederick Douglass Complex today, and houses the Jack Hadley Black History Museum. Mr. Hadley’s important research, readily available on the museum’s website, is the source of all the Black Thomasville history I’ve shared.
Dewey City Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This small winged-gable cottage is a representative property of the Dewey City Historic District, an historic Black neighborhood in Thomasville. The enclosure of the porch somewhat obscures it strong Queen Anne/Folk Victorian influence. Dewey City, named for Admiral George Dewey, was officially platted in 1904, and the district includes the other planned neighborhoods of Pine Summit (1911), Homestead Park (1911), and Douglass Heights (1947). The area is characterized by several vernacular house types, including bungalows, shotgun houses, pyramidal cottages, American Small Houses, and gable front cottages. This exceptional gabled-wing cottage, with Folk Victorian influences, is one of the most architecturally interesting.
The land that came to be known as Dewey City was initially purchased by Charles Bluett Quinn to provide housing for Thomasville’s emerging Black middle class families. The land was considered undesirable because of the sickness and disease associated with the temporary Civil War prison camp that was located on the edge of the neighborhood, It was also a low-lying area, with the numerous branches of Oquina Creek often causing flooding. The National Register of Historic Places notes that property owners who were compassionate to ex-slaves began selling and financing parcels to African-Americans as early as the 1890s.
Dewey City Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Real estate listings date this house to 1833, and I imagine its present Craftsman appearance dates to the ownership of the Young family, circa 1909. 1833 is very early, even for Thomasville, so I wish I could learn more about the house. I suspect it was much smaller when built.
The Jack Hadley Black History Museum notes that the Young family raised their six children in the home. “The downstairs consisted of 13 rooms, reserved for the family. The nine bedrooms upstairs were used for renters, until the end of segregation…When entertainers such as Silas Green from the New Orleans Minstrel Show came to town, the cast stayed at this house, and the over-flow stayed at the house next door. Quartets such as “The Southerners” and the Harlem Globetrotters stayed at the Young’s home on…occasion. Many men who worked on seasonal jobs, railroad men, traveling salesmen, etc., rented rooms upstairs by the week. Prior to 1909, this home was rumored to have been a brothel owned by a Caucasian woman.”
The house was briefly known as the Mitchell Young Anderson Museum, but I don’t know it’s status at this time.
The Craftsman appearance of this cottage dates to circa 1920 but the house was built circa 1883. Joseph Young was a successful Black businessman in Thomasville and he often rented rooms in the house for overnight guests. He also housed overflow from the boarding house next door, owned by his family. Historically, Oak Street was known as Thomasville’s “red light” district, and according to the Jack Hadley Black History Museum: “The Young family [were] aware of rumors that the property next door had once been a brothel run by a Caucasian woman; therefore, no rooms were rented on a “transit” basis, by the hour, etc. The Young’s insisted that everything had to be honorable, and men could not take female guests to their rooms…The late Mrs. Janie Armster’s family, a third generation African-American family since approximately 1910, presently occupies this home.“
Thomasville has a long railroad history, with its first known depot being built circa 1861 (demolished 1950s). At the height of the town’s position as one of the busiest winter resorts in the nation, a much larger depot was built by the Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad in 1886. The tourist trade waned by the early 1900s, when passenger railroads pushed most of the business into Florida, but Thomasville continued to grow, well-served by its established railroad presence.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Depot seen here was built in 1914, on the site of the Savannah, Florida & Western depot. It’s a landmark of the Mission Revival style, popular at the time. One end of the building (above photo) featured a restaurant, open 24 hours a day, and the other was the baggage room. Both are identified by their function on a terra cotta panel above the windows.
In the 1920s and 1930s, about 34 passenger trains arrived or departed in Thomasville daily, and the depot was a hub of local activity. By the early 1960s, passenger trains were being replaced by commercial airlines as travel options, and only a few trains came through Thomasville on occasion. The restaurant closed in 1969, and in 1979, the sole surviving passenger train running through Thomasville, by that time the Amtrak “Floridian”, was discontinued, and the depot closed.
Since being restored in the 2000s, the depot is now home to several businesses, including a restaurant.
A personal note: In conversation with my father, he told me that he worked out of this depot circa 1966-1967. He said while still a trainman for Atlantic Coast Line (and then Seaboard Coast Line) he had a Thomasville-Moultrie assignment. He drove from Fitzgerald to Thomasville and stayed in a boarding house near the depot. He said the tracks were so bad between Thomasville and Moultrie that the switch engine that made the run every day, known as “Butt Head”, topped out at around 15mph. He also remembered many of the men he worked with, including James Griffin, Glenn Alexander, Ed Cox, Julian Hunter, Bruce RIgdon, Henry Whitten, and C. W. Faulkner. He recalled the restaurant being open in those days, as well.
Included with the depot on the National Register of Historic Places, the Railway Express Agency office was built in 1928 to replace an earlier frame building, and served passengers until 1971. It’s located in the depot parking lot. Before UPS and FedEx, express agencies used the rails to move packages throughout the country. Thomasville is known to have had express service since at least 1865.
According to an historic marker placed by the Basford family in 2008, this vernacular Greek Revival cottage was built circa 1858 by Randolph Avera. At the time of its construction, it was more a country place, on the edge of the city. J. A. Weirig, a Thomasville carpenter, purchased the home in 1895. His daughter, Bessie Weirig, lived here for the next 75 years. It was saved and protected by Thomasville Landmarks in 1971 and was the first property in their revolving fund, which identifies, acquires, and connects historic homes with preservation-minded owners .
Dawson Street Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
I made this photograph several years ago and, since that time, it has been repainted and completely restored, to my understanding. It’s quite difficult to photograph because of the asymmetry, the way it rambles in different sections, but it’s a great example of an “exotic” Queen Anne and one of the most unique Victorian homes in Thomasville.
Dawson Street Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This historic structure, built in 1905, originally served as the administration building of Young’s Female College. According to Wikipedia, Young’s Female College was established in 1869, and had 15 teachers and 115 students in 1906. It was purchased in 1939 by the Rolt family and repurposed as the Rosemary Inn, a boarding house and hotel catering to the wealthy Northerners who spent their winters in Thomasville. Even with its current use as condominiums, it retains its original appearance.
Dawson Street Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This exquisite cottage may have begun as a simpler structure, with the Queen Anne decorative elements being added later, but no matter the history, the effect is one of near perfection. The house is not associated with the famous Margaret Mitchell, who wrote Gone With the Wind. I couldn’t locate anyone with that name in Thomasville. Perhaps she owned and preserved the house at some point during its history. It has had numerous owners over the years.
Dawson Street Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
