One of my favorite structures in Effingham County doesn’t actually stand alone, but rather, is attached to the rear of the well-loved Graham Commissary building which stands along the rail line in what was once the Shawnee community .
It has been identified as a residence by a member of the Graham family, who owned the commissary. What’s curious is that most such attachments usually conform to the architecture of the host store, but this one is quite distinct. From Julie Graham Weddle’s comments, I think that some of the Graham grandchildren, the Andrew Ushers, were the later owners of the “cottage”. Apparently, long after the commissary was closed, it was rented out to numerous families.
Architecturally, it’s a saddlebag house. The old window shutters lead me to believe the cottage was there before the commissary, or was moved and attached at some point. It’s one of the nicest vernacular houses in Effingham County on its own merit. This photo dates to 2012. It’s in rapidly deteriorating condition as of this writing.
A post office was established at Meldrim in 1890, and is still operating today. It’s located about 18 miles from Savannah and grew as a railroad junction because of its proximity to Georgia’s first city and busiest port.
The city is thought to have been named for Peter Meldrim (1848-1933) or his family. Meldrim was a member of a prominent Irish-American family in Savannah. He served as a colonel in the 1st Georgia Cavalry in the defense of the city against Union troops when he was sixteen, became a respected attorney who served as president of the Georgia Bar Association, served in the state senate, was mayor of Savannah, and a brigadier general in the Georgia National Guard, among many other civic activities. He was also an early and outspoken champion of the education of African-Americans in Georgia. He lived in the National Historic Landmark Green-Meldrim House until his death.
*-Some might identify this as a Georgian Cottage, but the depth of the house and the fact that it has a central hallway make it a shotgun house, in my opinion. It’s one of my favorite houses in Meldrim, plain as it is, and I chose it to represent Meldrim because it’s likely one of the oldest houses still standing in the city.
Though it features Queen Anne fretwork along the top of the porch, this house should be considered Folk Victorian. The bay wing on the right side of the house and the diagonal placement of the front door and steps is quite eclectic. I haven’t been able to locate any history.
Other than the name and date, I know no history of this house. My observation is that it is two rooms deep and laid out like an I-house. It’s situated away from the road on a large lot.
Guyton Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This house stands at the busiest intersection in Guyton, nearly hidden today by shrubbery and trees. It was built the same year as The Rabbi, a few blocks away, and both are excellent examples of the Carpenter Italianate style. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the work of the same local builder. I don’t know much about the house, other than the owners’ names and year built, but did learn that its last residents, Quitman D. “Dale” (1933-2012) & Marjorie Lee Jackson (1942-2016), were dedicated to its preservation.
Marjorie’s obituary is a heartwarming portrait of a Southern lady, albeit one who adopted the South as her home: Marjorie was known to friends and family as “Margie” and earlier as a young girl as “Little Margie”. Margie spent her early years growing up in Los Angeles, CA where she met husband, Quitman D. Jackson (Dale), her husband of 54 years while he was serving in the US Navy. Married in 1959, they both yearned for the tranquility of the South and in 1977, they found their own lifelong dream home, much like the historic houses she loved and researched, in Guyton, GA. She spent her life as a wonderful wife and amazing mother to 3 children, whom she devoted her creative talents to teach them everything she knew. She tended and loved her life in Guyton for nearly 40 years.
An avid believer in historic preservation, she was a member of the Guyton Historic Society in the early years and loved to invite folks in for the Annual Tour of Homes, dressed in her Southern Belle finery. She was an artist that saw the importance of music and visual beauty and a refined decorator in her home for each season. She loved to learn about travel through study and reading and mastered her skills of creating international meals to bring to her family table. She would often come back to her country roots cooking up her world renowned (according to her children) Sunday fried chicken dinners with skillet fried potatoes & okra and corn bread along with the sweetest tea you ever had the pleasure to enjoy.
Margie painted, drew portraits, made her kid’s clothes, sang and played the piano. Her favorite time was Christmas, when she would decorate every room in varying themes of the holiday, including several Christmas trees. She was once featured in Southern Living Magazine and was so proud of the distinguished honor. She was an incredible gardener and grew hundreds of varieties of flowers in her yard in Guyton including Japanese and English gardens, which her husband built for her to tend.
After years as a homemaker, once the children left the nest, she worked for many years at Thompson’s IGA, enjoying the socializing on a daily basis. She was loved by many customers and had many stories to tell from her time there.
Surveys date this gabled-ell house to 1887 but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was likely built earlier than that. Perhaps the left hand side of the house was built before the wing was added and it could even have antebellum origins. It really gives a Plantation Plain vibe. The entry door has a transom and sidelight and the window pediments are notable. It’s a hidden gem in Guyton and wish I knew more about it.
Guyton Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Unusual for Georgia jails in its “domestic” appearance, the old Effingham County Jail was built on the northwest corner of the courthouse square in 1935 to replace a simpler wood frame structure that was located at the corner of Pine Street and Early Street. An early project of the New Deal agency known as the Public Works Administration, the jail was designed in the Colonial Revival style by Savannah architect Walter P. Marshall, with the jail hardware done by Dalton’s Manly Jail Works. As was customary for the time, the structure housed the sheriff’s family on the first floor and inmates on the second floor.
At at time when Georgia had come under national scrutiny for the abysmal condition of its jails, the Effingham County Jail was seen as a positive development. The editor of the Springfield Herald wrote, in part: …the placing of the jail building was very cleverly done by the architect to give the best orientation, thus providing sunlight to all rooms and cell blocks…and that the County Commissioners are to be highly praised for their efforts in makingthis modern jail a reality, and it will do much toward the true prison ideal of making a prisoner a better citizen after his or her incarceration instead of a resentful or unruly person.
Hubert Carr (1895-1986) was sheriff when the jail opened and served in that capacity until 1960. His wife Hattie and daughters Louise, Dorothy, and Juanita all lived in the facility. The National Register of Historic Places nomination gives insight into how different sheriffs were in the past and gives insight into the matronly role of their wives, often overlooked: Sheriff Carr ordinarily allowed homeless people or domestic violence victims to spend a night in the holding cell, and Hattie, the sheriff’s wife, cooked breakfast for them the next morning. Mrs. Carr cooked all the meals for the prisoners in addition to her family’s meals. She provided two prisoner meals a day, which consisted of such foods as black-eyed peas, eggs, gravy, rutabagas, lima beans, cabbage, biscuits or cornbread and usually some kind of meat for each meal. She also provided baked goods, like sweet bread. Hattie washed the prisoner’s clothes in addition to her family’s clothes, took phone messages for the sheriff, and, occasionally, watched the prisoners when the sheriff was out on rounds. In her daughter Louise’s words, “She was the person who held everything together.”
The Carr sisters became familiar with the prisoners. Juanita, the youngest daughter, who was six at the time the family moved into the jailhouse, remembered playing baseball in the yard while prisoners acted as umpires by calling out plays from the windows on the second floor. Juanita also remembered becoming friends with one of the Black, female prisoners. All the sisters remembered one particular prisoner who sang hymns, like “The Old Rugged Cross.” He was kept at the jail for several months, and the girls became very attached to him. There were also family parties and significant occasions, like weddings, held at the jail. In Louise’s words, “We never thought about it being a jail. It was just home to us.”
Just down the road from the house pictured in the previous post, this hall and parlor cottage near Egypt is also believed to have been associated with the E. E. Foy Manufacturing Company. Several other such structures once stood along this road but are no longer extant.
This example, which features a shed room at the rear, was expanded at the front at some point. It is of board-and-batten construction, a very common siding for utilitarian dwellings. It’s possible that it was a rental property after serving its original purpose. Many of these buildings have also been used as hunting cabins, though I’m not suggesting that this one was.
This hall and parlor cottage is located behind the William H. J. Foy House in the middle of Egypt. The village of Egypt, that is. Egypt isn’t well known beyond the borders of Effingham County, but it’s one of my favorite crossroad communities in Southeast Georgia. The Foy family was in the area long before E. E. Foy came from Rocky Ford and made Egypt a boomtown. At its peak, Susan Exley notes that Foy’s sawmill and planing mill, known as the E. E. Foy Manufacturing Company, processed 60,000 board feet of lumber per day and brought thirty families into the area. The boom didn’t last, but it put Egypt on the map.
Some sources have suggested that this was one of the millworker’s houses, while others believe it may have been an earlier tenant house related to the Foys. It’s an amazing survivor, and though this photograph dates to 2014, the quaint little cottage is still standing, albeit more hidden by vegetation today.
This is yet another, slightly more formal example of the Georgian Cottage style. This photograph, like the one in the previous post, dates to 2014. The smaller dormer and balustrade give the house a very Victorian feel, without the extra ornamentation.
Since I photographed it, the house has been painted a medium yellow color and still looks nice.
Springfield Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
