The Atlanta and Hawkinsville Railroad was chartered in 1886 and, though it never reached Hawkinsville, built this depot along the way in 1888. The line was renamed the Atlanta and Florida Railway in 1893 and was sold to the Southern Railway in 1895.
In recent years, the depot was beautifully restored and is now home to the Lions Club and used for other functions, as well.
This Greek Revival cottage was built on North Church Street in 1833 by John E. Pettigrew. In 1840, Benjamin B. White purchased the house and added an additional bedroom, dining room, kitchen and verandah across the rear of the structure. The Stamps family bought the house at some point in the 1880s and remained until 1968. During that year, the house was moved to its present location by the Upson Historical Society to save it from demolition. It is the second oldest house in Thomaston.
The Pettigrew-White-Stamps House Museum at 800 S. Church Street in Thomaston is operated by the Upson Historical Society. Hours are Monday & Wednesday, 10-4, and Friday 10-2.
Freedmen established this historic congregation in 1867. James McGill writes in his fascinating book, The First One Hundred Years of Upson County Negro History (2017): By the summer of 1870, Reverend William Harris was sent to St. Mary AME Church in Thomaston, Georgia. Rev. Harris, the third pastor in the history of St. Mary, was born free in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1845 but was kidnapped in 1858 and sold into slavery in Georgia. He escaped to the North two years later and eventually enlisted in the Union Army.
William Harris met Rev. M. Turner, a Presiding Elder of the AME Church, on the corner of Peachtree and Whitehall Streets in Atlanta in 1866…At the Atlanta Georgia District Conference of the AME Church, Rev. Turner licensed [Harris] as an exhorter, and then presented him a preacher’s license at the Wilmington Annual Conference in Wilmington, North Carolina. Rev. Harris received some schooling at what would later become Clarke College. Rev. Harris served Atlanta’s Western Mission for two years before being presented a deacon’s license in 1870 and appointed to St. Mary in Thomaston.
It is safe to assume that Rev. Harris taught school at St. Mary AME Church. St. Mary had a new church building completed that year [1870] which provided ample room for scholars. The school operated in St. Mary at least as late as 1876. Upson County did not open a public school in Thomaston for Negro students until August 1883; St. Mary can confidently claim credit for housing the first successful church school organized for the Negroes in Upson County.
The current church building was constructed in 1905 during the pastorate of Rev. J. H. Adams. Trustees were: H. R. Rogers; Ed Hix; A. G. Cary; George Bell; William Brown; James Brown; James W. Bell; M. Drake, Sr.; and A. Holsey. The church retains its historic appearance, though stucco has been applied to the original brick.
This gristmill was built on Ten Mile Creek in 1859 by Dr. J. W. Herring (1823-1911), who named it Rose Hill Mill. Dr. Herring was a physician by trade, but was also a well-known amateur engineer, having built several covered bridges in Upson County and vicinity, including the Auchumpkee Creek Covered Bridge. Notably, Rose Hill Mill was turbine operated, as opposed to the more common water-wheel system.
The mill was purchased in 1887 by Dr. George Whitfield Telford Hannah (1841-1906), a Confederate veteran and leading Thomaston physician. Since then it has been known as Hannah’s Mill. The surrounding community, now absorbed by Thomaston, is also known as Hannah’s Mill.
D. P. Harrell was the next owner, presumably following Dr. Hannah’s death. Since 1932, it has been owned by the Joseph W. McDonald family. The mill closed in the 1970s.
National Register of Historic Places
This extraordinary vernacular Queen Anne/Folk Victorian cottage is a great example of local craftsmanship being applied to a simple central hallway form. That it has survived so largely intact is a testament to the work, in my opinion. [The photograph dates to 2015 but the house was still standing when I went through Bowersville a couple of years ago].
Bowersville Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Whirligigs can be very whimsical, but many are utilitarian, like this one I photographed in the Odessadale community several years ago.
Most of us who have grown up swimming in rivers and creeks are familiar with rope swings tied to trees that have a good reach over the waterway, and occasionally, we see impromptu ladders added to make the climb to the top easier. I shot these several years ago near the Meriwether County Landing on the Flint River and I think they had more steps than any I’ve seen.
I really didn’t know what to call them other than “diving trees”. They’re really more for jumping than diving, especially when the rivers are low. I don’t think there’s any consensus as to an official term but they’re a thing down here in southern Georgia and I thought these two were perfect examples.
Alfred Dearing began construction on this house around 1860, and after work was interrupted by the Civil War, completed it in the late 1860s or early 1870s. It was sold in 1878 and after passing through several owners, became the home of leading Athens banker John Julian Wilkins in 1905. The Classical Revival landmark is among the grandest homes on South Milledge Avenue.
National Register of Historic Places
This bas-relief triptych is located on the Athens-Clarke County Information Technology office at 596 Prince Avenue. It’s titled Morning, Noon, and Evening of Life and was created by Nashville sculptor Thomas Puryear Mims. There were at least three of these works, including the Athens example: one was located in Jackson, Mississippi, and has since been removed, and another is still extant, in Chattanooga. They were commissioned by Interstate Life and Accident Company in the 1950s, so my presumption is that this building was originally home to a branch of Interstate Life and Accident Company.
This sort of work was commonly found on structures built a bit earlier, during the New Deal, and later was common on Medical Arts buildings and doctor’s offices.
This is an important Mid-Century sculpture and should be preserved.
