This was a new discovery for me yesterday. It’s obviously a general store, judging by the form, and has long been closed. The middle of the building is sagging so badly that my initial though was that it won’t be around much longer, but it has likely looked like this for a long time. They don’t build them like this anymore.
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.
The gable front cottage was one of the most common house types in Georgia in the early 20th century, and that was true in Tattnall County, as well. I have a few more to share.
This board-and-batten gabled-ell cottage was a landmark in my travels to Red Earth Farm for many years. It’s now a heap of boards, finished off by Hurricane Helene.
It was likely a tenant home, perhaps connected to the nearby John Pearson House and related to the naval stores industry.
It was a humble house but must have been loved in its time. I know I will miss seeing it.
I have preliminarily identified this as a shed, since I can’t quite determine its purpose. It has a front door, which would be more typical for a shed than a barn, but beyond that, I’m at a loss.
This one-door saddlebag cottage was likely a tenant dwelling. It’s an excellent example of the form.
Both rooms have a simple hearth, a necessity in these uninsulated spaces. A trace of wallpaper remains in this room.
It’s not a stretch to call houses of this type landmarks today. Utilitarian dwellings were common throughout rural Georgia from its founding well into the middle of the 20th century. Many began life as tenant housing and were later rental properties. This evolution often led to expansions and modifications, as a matter of practicality.
This example is to me a good illustration of the difficulty I often face in identifying specific types, without benefit of a floor plan. This appears to have started as a single-pen cottage. At some point a shed room was added to the back and a wing was added to the left side. However, if it was originally two rooms deep, it could be called a Georgian cottage. That doesn’t seem likely, but since these structures were ultimately an expression of their builder’s skill and preferences, one cannot be sure without further investigation. They are all worthy of documentation.
I first photographed this house in 2001 and it was still standing in 2015. I haven’t driven past it in a few years and am not sure if it survives. Typical of many tenant houses, it was of board-and-batten construction and had a small shed room at the back. These small utilitarian spaces were often associated with farming and/or turpentining and supported large families in many cases. It’s hard to imagine what life must have been like in such a small space without any of the modern conveniences.
During the 1920s, this board-and-batten single-pen cottage was the childhood home of one of America’s most famous athletes. Born on 3 May 1921 to Walker Smith, Sr., a Dublin, Georgia, native, and Leila Hurst, from Johnson County, Walker Smith, Jr., came to be known as Sugar Ray Robinson and went on to worldwide fame and fortune. According to his autobiography, his father, who worked as a farm laborer, eventually moved the family to Detroit in search of better opportunity. The Smiths had two daughters, as well. The couple separated in the early 1930s, but may not have divorced. Walker Smith, Sr., was buried in Detroit and Leila Smith in Westchester County, New York. In Sugar Ray, Robinson’s posthumous autobiography published in 1994, he notes that the family moved to New York City around this time. [There is some conflict with dates and facts in the autobiography and Robinson’s official website, though they are trivial.]
Smith dropped out of high school in ninth grade and though he initially wanted to be a doctor became fascinated by boxing. When he was turned away from entering his first match at age 14 because he was too young to be a member of the Amateur Athletic Union, he used the identification card of a friend at the gym, Ray Robinson, and that name stuck. He told Time magazine in a 1951 cover story (“Businessman Boxer”, 25 June 1951) that a woman attending a fight in Watertown, New York, said he was “sweet as sugar”, and the name Sugar Ray Robinson was born. He turned pro in 1940 and compiled a record of 129-1-2 with 85 knockouts. He held numerous titles and is widely regarded as the greatest boxer of all time, pound-for-pound.
His first marriage, to Marjorie Joseph in 1938, was short-lived and was annulled the same year. They had a son, Ronnie Smith. Robinson married Edna Mae Holly (1915-2002), who was a dancer at Harlem’s famous Cotton Club, in 1943 or 1944. They had one child, Ray Robinson, Jr. but the couple divorced in 1962. He later married Mildred “Millie” Wiggins Bruce, in 1965, and the couple moved to Los Angeles. He faced many health issues in his final years, suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and diabetes, and died on 12 April 1989.
A personal note: I’ve been trying to “find this house” for as long I’ve known of its existence, but wasn’t able to pinpoint the location for various reasons. After seeing it positively identified by friends at Ethos Preservation in Savannah, I realized I already had photographs and just didn’t know it was “the” house. I understand there are no plans for preservation at this time, and while the house is in relatively good condition, it should at least have an historic marker denoting its significance. I believe it would be of interest to tourists and boxing fans and perhaps in a perfect world would be a small museum honoring the career of this native son.
I’m still looking through older, unpublished photographs and discovered this one, made in 2017 in Mitchell County. It’s a typical central hallway form with board-and-batten siding. A front porch appears to have collapsed or been removed, which is also typical with abandoned properties. Jonathan West writes that this was actually a grocery and parts store all-in-one, owned by his parents.