Smithville Rosenwald School, 1928, Lee County

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According to the November 2005 issue of Reflections, a newsletter of the Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network, a school for Black children in Smithville was established in an abandoned house by A. R. Robinson in 1903. The students performed so well that the county school board built a three-room schoolhouse for their use. It was destroyed by fire at some point, and classes were held in the Masonic lodge and local churches.

A new four-teacher school, which taught students through the eighth grade, was built in 1928, with the aid of the Julius Rosenwald Fund. It also included a library and auditorium.

After the Brown v. Board decision in 1955, the Smithville Rosenwald School closed. It was used for a time as an apartment building, according to Smithville, Georgia: A Glimpse Into the Past (1976). It has been abandoned for many years and at this time is in derelict condition. There has been some interest in restoration but I’m unaware of the progress at this time.

Red Spider Lilies, Webster County

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Whether you know them as Spider Lilies or Hurricane Lilies, or any of their myriad other common names, these Asian natives are one of the sure signs of autumn in Georgia. [Linda Adams writes that an elderly friend in Schley County called them “surprise lilies”]. Technically known as Lycoris radiata, they made their way to America soon after the opening of Japan to the western world in 1854. Their intricate beauty and bright color ensured their popularity and they’ve been with us ever since.

I remember my thrill, and even more so my great-grandmother’s delight, when the spider lilies appeared every September, after the first heavy rains of the season.

Today, they often emerge in empty lots, indicating a house once stood on the property. I know how much they meant to my great-grandmother and imagine everyone else who planted them loved them just as much as we did.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 1870, Webster County

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When Ernie Culpepper relocated and restored this historic church from Sumter County to Webster County in 2010, he saved more than just a building. The very existence of a Lutheran congregation in this part of Georgia was unusual. Most Georgians, being of English and Scots Irish descent, were Methodists and Baptists. According to our friends at Historic Rural Churches of Georgia (HRCGA), “St. Marks Lutheran was organized in the late 1860s by German immigrants who moved in from South Carolina...[they] were all from the Dutchforks area of South Carolina, located around what is now Newberry and Lexington counties.

The church was established in the late 1860s in the Bot(t)sford community, southwest of Plains in Sumter County.

First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s ancestors were members of St. Mark’s and the Carter family maintained a connection with the church for many years. Jimmy Carter even visited the church with Walter Mondale after securing the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1976.

Photos of the church made by our friend Steve Robinson before it was moved and restored show sheet rock walls of a lime green color and floors and trim in a very worn condition (posted on HRCGA) .

The sanctuary is a beauty to behold today and the work and commitment to its restoration by Ernie Culpepper is nothing short of a wonder. It really proves that, where preservation is concerned, that when there’s a will, there is always a way.

Rural Hill United Methodist Church, Webster County

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This church is located south of Centerpoint. It’s a typical front gable church, with three bays. I’m identifying it as a church because structures like this are usually churches. It has obviously been abandoned for a long time.

Susan Hogan writes: Rural Hill United Methodist Church… a part of the Preston Charge along with Weston and Preston churches. The pastors were often students at Emory University coming from Atlanta to the Preston parsonage on weekends. “Preaching” took place at Preston church on 1st and 3rd Sundays at 11:00 a.m. Sunday school every Sunday. Services at Weston church at 9 a.m. (?) then Rural Hill at 11 a.m. Not sure when services stopped.. probably the 1980s-90s.

Leslie Baptist Church, Sumter County

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No history of this church is to be easily found online, but I would be grateful to learn more. The congregation has probably been around as long as the community.

Queen Anne Cottage, Leslie

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This is a refined but unusually massed Queen Anne cottage. The three gables on the side and the timber framing on the front gable are the most interesting features.

Winged Gable Cottage, Circa 1910, Leslie

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One of the most common house types of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Georgia, the winged gable cottage was a utilitarian form that was often expanded as the need dictated. This example has two rear wings, or ells, and is larger than the facade would indicate. The Folk Victorian porch posts are also a common element of such houses.

Queen Anne Cottage, Leslie

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This is one of several homes in Leslie that have been dated to 1910. As is often the case, I suspect this to be a “recorded” rather than actual date. Though I don’t have more information, and nothing more than an educated guess, I would expect this more likely to date to the late 1800s. It’s a textbook example of the Queen Anne cottage style so popular in Georgia at that time.

George Franklin Webb House, 1901, Sumter

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Sumter was a small crossroads community in Sumter County, just north of Smithville; it had a post office from 1884-1954. [It may have also been known as Sumter City]. It could just as well have been known as Webb, as the Webb family was in the area by circa 1825 and John Ronaldson Webb (1822-1881) was farming 125 acres east of Muckaloochee Creek by the 1850s. He and Amanda Melvinia Williams Webb had at least thirteen children. They eventually owned and cultivated 900 acres. According to the National Register of Historic Places, Amanda divided the land between her seven living sons in 1900. They all built homes along Highway 19 and farmed them separately.

This is one of the numerous farmhouses built by the Webb brothers. I believe three are extant, including the William A., and Emory C. Webb houses. This eclectic Queen Anne was owned by George Franklin Webb (1861-1936) and Ida Varina Goynes Webb (1875-1956). Together, these resources make up the historic Webb Family Farms.

The houses and historic farmland, along with the adjacent Liberty Primtive Baptist Church, are also significant as surviving structures of the nearly forgotten Sumter community.

National Register of Historic Places

Guerry-Mitchell House, Circa 1840, Americus

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This superb Greek Revival cottage was built by James Peter Guerry (1803-1878) between 1836-1840, and is one of the oldest documented houses in Americus. Guerry was born in South Carolina and with two of his brothers came to Americus in the 1830s. They were among the earliest settlers of the city. Guerry served as a state representative and judge. After his sons returned to Americus after their service in the Civil War, Guerry turned the house over to one of them, John C. Guerry, and retired to his plantation near Plains. John C. Guerry sold the house to Beverly C. Mitchell (1818-1889) in 1878 and the Mitchell family remained there until the 1940s.

National Register of Historic Places