Built for the Pope family in 1892, this was converted to a boarding house and restaurant in 1934 by the Lankford family. Pre-interstate, when US41 was a main north-south route to Florida, it was one of the busiest tourist sites in Tifton and known statewide, even nationally. After the boarding house ceased operation, the popular restaurant remained a Tifton landmark for many years.
Tifton Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Tifton Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
When I lived in this neighborhood, I admired this fine Craftsman house more than any other in the area. Cameille Carter-Pinder writes: My Grandfather had this house built in 1913. He went to Atlanta and saw the same house and fell in love with it and asked the people that owned it if he could get the plans for the house from them. He did and came back to Tifton and had the house built. He was J.L. Brooks and owned Brooks Drug store.
Tifton Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This was the home of Columbus Wesley Fulwood, for whom Tifton’s large public park is named. Self-taught in the practice of law, Fulwood opened the first firm in Tifton and served several terms as mayor. It is presently an apartment house.
Tifton Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Tifton Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Tifton Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Tifton Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
In 1985, the former residence of Paul D. (P.D.) and Ruth Vickers Fulwood became home to the Tifton Council of Garden Clubs. Now known as the Fulwood Garden Center, it is used for garden club meetings and as a public event venue. The Fulwood family are among Tifton’s earliest settlers and have long been patrons of the arts and cultural life in the community. P. D. Fulwood was a pioneer in diverse vegetable production in Tift County, where it remains an important component of the local economy.
Tifton Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Several restaurants have been located here over the years. The old Billy’s Restaurant sign appears to date to the 1950s or thereabouts. It was most recently Hawk-Eye Bar-B-Que.
I’ve been scanning a few of my older prints from film cameras recently and came across these photos, made in the parking lot of the Tifton Mall in 2006. Men who sell watermelons from their trucks are fixtures in every small town and crossroads, even today, but this gentleman had a pile of them.
