This little building is definitely a barn today, but the screen door on the front indicates it may indeed have once been a country store. The signs identify it as Blocker’s Grocery. I’m not sure it was originally located in this spot, but it’s a great preservation of a bygone era, either way. I miss those old Sunbeam bread signs.
I don’t often document convenience stores, but before a chain dollar store moved into the community, the Fast Track was the de facto shopping center for the Beards Creek community. I think they sold a little bit of everything and had a laundromat.
This photograph was also made in 2012, when I began documenting signs of the growing Hispanic population around Beards Creek. The colors of the Mexican flag were painted on this store building and a sign for a nearby Hispanic church is also visible.
When I made this photograph in 2012, the Beards Creek neighborhood was well on its way to becoming a center of the hard-working Hispanic community of Tattnall County. Though located in northern Long County, unincorporated Beards Creek is home to many of the people who make Tattnall County’s Vidalia Onion business possible. La Cueva de Aguila, the Cave of the Eagle or Eagle’s Cave, is no longer in business, but there are other restaurants and churches in the area catering to the growing Hispanic population.
This house was a landmark in Manassas and looked to be in relatively good condition when I made this photograph in 2016. It is essentially a Plantation Plain, or I-House, and the porches are a later addition.
I’ve driven down this majestic canopy road many times, and having explored much of Tattnall County, would suggest that it is perhaps its most scenic route. I haven’t been out this way in a while and hope it wasn’t damaged when Hurricane Helene passed through the area.
The siding on this tobacco barn, hidden at the edge of the woods, suggests it was built near the end of the era of tobacco barns. Mechanical processing was prevalent by the 1970s, when interest in the crop began to wane significantly.
I believe this is the last of the gable front cottages from my Tattnall County archives, for now. These are such simple houses but were workhorses of rural housing and remain popular today.
I imagine many days were spent on this porch taking in the countryside. The camellia has obscured much of the facade but no doubt was treasured by the residents here.
This little cottage is located near the railroad tracks in Collins. With board-and-batten siding and an ornamental gable, it’s a bit “fancier” than most such houses.