I ran into a local gentleman while photographing in Mershon and he said that sixty years ago this was a busy place, where turpentine workers who lived nearby ran accounts. He also said his father remembered working on Model-T Fords in the garage at the rear of the store.
Sequana Thompson Beale writes: A gentleman named “Hershel” owned this store back in the 1960’s & 70’s. I spent a couple of summers working in the store. I got the job as a twelve year old because I knew how to make change in my head. The only number on the cash register that worked was the 5 to open it. I also sliced the bologna for customers during rush hour “dinner time” for the Tobacco field workers. Fond memories!
Cheryl Sebastian adds: Used to go there for bread and a few slices of bologna sliced off the log with a knife! Those were the days, my friend!
This structure seems to symbolize the fortunes of Millwood, like so many other railroad towns that dried up as soon as the business did. At one time, the railroad siding here was a busy hub but today the trains just speed by on their way into Rice Yard in nearby Waycross.
Jessica Carter writes: This is actually the old hotel…in Millwood. In fact, the upstairs is still in pretty much original condition. Luckily, neighbors seem to keep an eye on it. It would be a wonderful restoration project.
The “stacked” gables on this house are amazing.
This brick shell is all that remains of a storefront in Millwood.
Millwood’s thriving past is evident in this large schoolhouse. It’s obviously been abandoned for many years.
The Powell farmhouse is located just north of Lakeland. It’s an interesting vernacular form which immediately caught my eye as I was driving toward Pearson. It’s part of an historic farmstead that is presently listed for sale. The house appears to date to the late 19th century, perhaps the 1870s.
Two pack houses or seed barns are located on the property.
A nice tobacco barn also survives.
Update: Sadly, as of 2019, the farm has been demolished, with not a building left as I understand it.
Banks Lake is a natural blackwater lake characterized by shallow water and cypress trees. Located just east of Lakeland, it was owned for much of the 2oth century by the family of Governor Ed Rivers.
Joshua Lee operated a grist mill here in the mid-1800s. When he dammed the Carolina bay on his property, the lake was created.
Unsubstantiated sources suggest that Governor Ed Rivers’ family attempted to develop the area in the 1920s and that his estate threatened to drain and log the lake in the 1970s, but regardless, the property was purchased by the Nature Conservancy in 1980, assuring its preservation. In 1985, the Conservancy sold the lake to the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, who redesignated it Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
With around 20,000 visitors per year, Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge is one of the least crowded parks in the system. It almost feels like a roadside park because, effectively, it is. There are docks and a short boardwalk and an outfitter on site. A gentleman I met on the dock told me that fishermen tie strips of cloth to trees to find their way around. It’s apparently quite thick with cypress.
Banks Lake is part of the Grand Bay-Banks Lake ecosystem, the second largest freshwater wetland in Georgia, after the Okefenokee Swamp.
The refuge, managed by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, does not have on-site staff. Fishing is allowed, for those with valid licenses.
For information on this natural wonder of Georgia, please visit the refuge website.
If you’ve ever driven west on Georgia Highway 37 to Lakeland, chances are you’ve passed by this house and not even noticed it. It was the longtime home of Governor E. D. “Ed” Rivers (1895-1967). From the historical marker placed in 2002 by The Georgia Historical Society*, et al: Eurith Dickinson Rivers was governor of Georgia from 1937 to 1941. He actively supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Program. Rivers’ innovative leadership produced Georgia’s first Department of Public Welfare, free school books, the State Highway Patrol, and modernization of the state highway system. Born in Arkansas, Rivers married Lucile Lashley in 1914 and moved with his family to Milltown (later Lakeland) in 1920 to practice law. He is buried in Lakeland. Built in 1940 on the shores of Banks lake, the ranch style house, designed by Frank Byrd, was relocated to this site in the early 1980s.
Governor Rivers met Miss Lashley while a student at Young Harris College and they were married in 1914. After earning a law degree from LaSalle Extension University in Illinois, the family moved to Cairo, where Rivers served as justice of the peace as well as Cairo City and Grady County Attorney. They then moved to (Milltown) Lakeland where Mr. Rivers became editor of the Lanier County News. Background on Rivers’s political history can be found here.
*- Though the Georgia Historical Society is well aware of the fact, they made no mention of the fact that he was an active and known member of the Ku Klux Klan. In my opinion, this cannot be separated from anything good he may have accomplished.
According to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form (1986): The Lanier County Auditorium and Grammar School is significant as an unusual and distinctive example…of eclectic early 20th century architecture. The compact, regular massing of the buildings, the use of brick, and details such as quoins, keystoned arches, and pedimented front entryways suggest traditional, institutional Georgian Revival architecture. However, these elements area handled in a free, non-traditional way that reflects a contemporary early 20th century design approach…These architectural characteristics result from the fact that the buildings were designed by Lloyd Greer (1885-1952) of nearby Valdosta, Georgia, a highly trained, versatile architect known for designing many other schools, public buildings, and private homes throughout the South Georgia and North Florida area.
The buildings are…the only remaining facilities associated with the county’s first consolidated school system. The county was created in 1920, the same year the city and county schools began consolidation as part of a statewide movement toward consolidation. After this consolidation took effect, more school space was needed and thus these two buildings were built in 1925 to augment the existing Lanier County High School. The auditorium has served many county groups as a meeting space since it was the largest meeting space in the county. The loss by fire of the pre-existing Oaklawn Academy/Lanier County High School building in 1950 left these two structures as the only representatives of this early Lanier County educational effort.
National Register of Historic Places