The Sanitary Barber Shop was established by Ben Lundy in the Cairoga Club Building in 1921. At some point, it became The Graco Barber Shop, which took its name from Grady County. It may be the finest surviving example of an historic barber shop in Georgia; it’s certainly the nicest one I’ve ever seen.
According to the Grady County History Museum: In 1936 the barber shop was purchased by Frank Massey and maintained by him until his death in 1965. One of his barbers, Winfred Robinson, bought the business and ran it until his retirement in 2010.
Long a popular Saturday stop for generations of Grady Countians it became much more than a just a place to get a haircut or a shave. Much like Floyd’s barber shop in Mayberry, it became the local information hub where people could catch up on the latest news and gossip. While they waited, pairs of combatants would play checkers while a group of kibitzers would gather around them and tell them what they were doing wrong.
Cairo Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The old Atlantic Coast Line depot in the middle of downtown Cairo was a busy location in its early years, carrying produce, and the syrup that made the town famous, to buyers all over the country. As dependence on depots waned, the venerable building was repurposed in the 1970s as the Cairo Police Department. Recently, a demolition of the non-historic interior was completed and a master plan to restore it to its original condition was initiated by Lew Oliver, Inc., a renowned architectural firm responsible for numerous successful projects throughout the region. I’m a big fan of Mr. Oliver’s work and know that Cairo will be pleased with what he will do with this depot.
Cairo Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, built 1920
A sign on this church dates the congregation to 1878, but further research suggests that it was established in the 1860s, likely during the Civil War. In its listing for the National Register of Historic Places, Brother George Donald said that Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church was “founded by African Americans who would slip off into the woods to pray in secret” and that the church began as “brush arbor” at Piney Grove, located southwest of Whigham. The 1878 date is likely when the congregation adopted the tenets of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
This lot was purchased from J. T. Harrell for $20 in 1878 and the first trustees were Brothers Thomas Young, Georgie Donald, Fortune Liphnidge, George Shackleford, and Even Swicord. They built a log church here, which served until it burned in 1920. The present church dates to that time. It served the congregation until the 1980s, when deterioration and dwindling membership saw worship move into the schoolhouse. Presently, the structure is stable but in serious need of further renovation.
Ebenezer School, Built circa 1930
Not unlike other Black congregations of the era, Ebenezer saw the importance of education and built this one-room schoolhouse to serve their community circa 1930.
A subscriber to Vanishing Georgia writes: Whigham had a Black school built in the 1950s. It was/is located only a couple of blocks from Whigham High School. It’s on Google Street View, but I don’t know if it’s still standing. Based on state statistics and what I’ve gleaned from Cairo Messenger archives, I’d put Ebenezer’s closure around 1950. One of my projects has been recovering names of Black schools before the earliest cumulative list of 1957.
I think I have all of Grady County’s segregated schools from the 1951-52 school year, when it reported to the state it had 12 Black schools. In 1950, however, Grady reported 21 schools, 13 of them one-teacher. Ebenezer would have been too nice to close before then, especially since it had an actual building that wasn’t the chapel itself. The Black Whigham school opened in 1956. Total integration was completed in 1970 and it doesn’t look like it was used after that, based on educational directories.
Ebenezer was nice in comparison to many of the other county schools for Black children and is an amazing survivor.
Waycross native Ben Hagen recently reached out to let me know about this structure in the process of being razed, in downtown Waycross. He noted: …The siding which had covered it for decades had been removed, and a number of great old ads were visible, including Coca-Cola, Chero Cola, a Nash/Oakland auto dealership, and more that I can’t make out...
It was located beside the US Highway 84 overpass at Francis Street and was originally two stories.
The primary signage on the front of the building, as seen in the first image, and below, indicate it may have been home to the Georgia Cigar & Soda Company.
As Ben noted, there were quite a few ads for other business on the side of the building, including Coca-Cola. My guess is that the proximity to the busy highway may have made the location a perfect spot for advertising, before the proliferation of stand-alone billboards.
I. C. Williams, the first commercial peach grower in Brooks County, built this packing shed in the 1950s. Though it’s now owned by Mike and Lynn Abbott and known as Burton Brooks Orchards, the business is stronger than ever. Like Luck & Moody across the road, Burton Brooks sells at least 100 gallons of ice cream a day during the summer.
At the encouragement of Brooks County’s first peach grower, I. C. Williams, James E. Moody began growing peaches in the late 1950s. He began packing the fruit in an old cotton gin by the railroad tracks, as a way to streamline his operation and ship his peaches in a timely manner. As his business grew, he built this more modern shed, originally known as the James Moody Peach Shed. It was later known as Joyce & Moody, before becoming Luck & Moody. Mr. Moody’s daughter and granddaughter continue the business today.
In summer, their famous peach ice cream brings in customers from far and wide; they sell 100 gallons or more on a good day.
This colorful mural by artist Ethan Abbott graces the side of the old Harris Brothers garage and leaves no doubt that you’re in the heart of South Georgia’s peach country. It’s one of the most colorful murals out there and I guarantee it will make you want to stop and buy some peaches or get some peach ice cream.
This view of the Alapaha River looks north from the US 221/US 129 bridge just east of Lakeland at Pafford’s Landing. Heavy winter rains have resulted in a much higher water level than normal. The privately owned launch and beach are publicly accessible at the landing, but not all of the property is open to the public.
The Alapaha is popular with fishermen and kayakers today. It’s also of historical importance as an integral feature in the settlement of this section of the Georgia Wiregrass region.
