William A. Edwards designed Tift County’s courthouse in the Beaux Arts style quite popular at the time. On first glance it may appear a bit mundane, but walk around the square and you’ll likely by inspired by its architectural influences.
My favorite features are the lion medallions at the top of the front facade.
National Register of Historic Places
This sign was located on US 41 near ABAC. I’m not sure if it’s still standing, but it was erected in the late 1940s or early 1950s for the Danny Ross Motor Court.
Beth Hobby writes: This was the home of John Karey Thompson. Thompson resided in the home in the early 1900’s (approximately 1915). It was a part of the Cyclonita farm. He started the pecan orchards in the surrounding area.
Hidden from view for years, this barn was recently exposed by a clear-cut.
I’ve been collecting antique postcards of South Georgia towns since I was in college, beginning in 1988.
Most of these were not used, but they date from 1905-1925.
I recently inherited a large collection and like to share them from time to time.
What is most apparent in these images is how much a wilderness the area still was in the early 20th century.
Growth and prosperity seemed to be all around, though.
Oliver Davis owned this old mill and the store in Sunsweet. I made this photo in 2011 and recently learned that it collapsed some time in 2013.
Lewis Hine was a pioneering documentary photographer whose influence could be seen in the later work of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and countless others. He’s best known for exposing the plight of child labor and his images made in America’s cotton mills and sweat shops helped put an end to the practice.
An exhibit of his work will open at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture in Tifton this Saturday (15 March), highlighted by a reunion of the descendants and relatives of one of his endearing subjects, Eddie Lou Young.
Joe Manning, whose blog, Mornings on Maple Street, has traced many of the subjects of Hines’ photographs, is the organizer of the project.
Eddie Lou Young’s mother, Catherine, fell on hard times, and Eddie Lou and several of her siblings were placed in a Methodist orphan’s home not long after the Hine photographs were made. She was adopted by Reese and Luella Parker of Americus, in 1910, and married one of Mr. Parker’s relatives, Hawkins Alexander Parker, in 1920.
The couple had seven children, and for a time, in 1941, lived a few houses down from Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, who were newly married at the time. Eddie Lou died in 1979 and Hawkins died in 1982.
One of their sons, Earl, was my biology professor at ABAC and was one of the nicest men around. I didn’t do so well in the class, but Dr. Parker was very fair and memorably likeable.
This property has been farmed by the same family for at least four generations. It was recently sold and I was asked to document it. Thanks to Brad Lindsey for inviting me and for sharing a bit of his family’s history.
This appears to have served as a corn crib at one time.
Pictured above is an old packhouse and its interior is shown below. Wilt Jones remembers fertilizer being stored here and notes that the bags hanging on the right might have held guano. He remembers his Papa Jones called it guy-anner. If you’re from South Georgia I’m sure you’re familiar with that old-time pronunciation.
The skeletal remains of a tobacco barn are a reminder of the favored crop of mid-20th century Georgia.
This pioneer log house was the first dwelling built on the historic Grady Jones farmstead.
It’s a good illustration of a “starter” home common among South Georgia farm families in the late 19th and early 20th century.
MaryBeth Bishop notes that this is located on the Mason Thompson farm.