The Rimes Brothers Department Store building is the last surviving historic commercial retail structure in Ludowici, and was once the anchor of the town’s commercial row on McQueen Street, across from the depot. Neighboring buildings were destroyed by fire in 1970 and never rebuilt. They included the old Ludowici Hotel, Smiley’s General Merchandise, Branch’s Pharmacy, the Suwannee Store, and Collette’s Beauty Shop, among others.
Rimes Bros. Department Store, Ludowici, Ga. Kropp Postcard, 1911. Collection of Brian Brown.
The Rimes brothers [Henry P. (1872-1940), Eugene Booth (1868-1953), and Morgan T. (1856-1914)] came to Ludowici (then known as Johnston Station) in the 1880s from nearby Willie, Georgia, and began a mercantile business. The department store was a culmination of their earlier success and opened circa 1911. It was advertised as the largest store between Savannah and Waycross at the time, and, like many department stores of the era which sold everything from cribs to caskets, was true to its slogan: “We feed you, clothe you, and bury you.”
The Colonnade is Atlanta’s second-oldest restaurant, after Atkins Park. The Mid-Century landmark is a reliable favorite for comfort food and classic cocktails, beloved by locals and tourists alike. Not many other places can claim customers who have been coming in for over 70 years and employees who have stuck with it for over 50 years.
Established in 1927 by Frank Tarleton at the corner of Lindbergh Drive and Piedmont Road, The Colonnade moved to its present location at 1879 Cheshire Bridge Road NE in 1962. Longtime owners Jodi and David Stallings decided it was time to retire last year and sold the business to Lewis Jeffries and Paul Donahue, who plan on keeping things true to the formula that has made it such a success, retaining popular menu items and bringing back old favorites.
Fried chicken is the star attraction, but a wide variety of meat-and-three favorites is on the menu, including pot roast, served with mashed potatoes, carrots and English peas. Tomato aspic (not pictured) is also a classic menu item that’s quite popular.
The wedge salad is served with pickled beets, tomatoes, onion, bacon, and blue cheese.
The yeast rolls get their own plates…
The Colonnade is always busy but it’s worth the wait. And they don’t take reservations.
The bar serves classic cocktails, wine, and beer, and if everyone doesn’t know your name right away, they’ll remember you.
This one of the most architecturally distinct buildings in downtown Jesup, and one of just a few historic commercial blocks that survived the 2014 fire. It’s been home to numerous businesses over the years, but I haven’t been able to determine its original use. The carport canopy would suggest it may have housed an automobile dealership at one time, but this is just a guess. I will update if anyone knows more.
According to the City of Jesup: “The Kicklighter Building was a commercial building constructed in the early 1890s. It was inherited by the Kicklighter’s daughter, Alma (1874-1963), who married Dr. S(amuel) F. Ellis (1869-1916), a local dentist.Dr. Ellis threw the teeth he had extracted into a hole in the wall. Later on when the building was remodeled, this wall was knocked out and all the teeth fell out on the floor.“
Mathew W. Kicklighter (1846-1929), father of Alma, and early owner and namesake of this commercial block, was a Confederate veteran who served with Clinch’s Cavalry during the Civil War. He was one of seven brothers in the Confederate service. His wife was Annie Strickland Kicklighter (1846-1910).
This marble-front bank is one of the finest commercial buildings in Jeffersonville. While many are aware of the failure of banks during the Great Depression, there was also a wave of bank failures during the 1900s and 1910s. I’m unsure of the original name of this one, but it’s best known locally as the “Corner Bank”. I believe it now houses an antiques store.
The timber boom that led to the settlement of Eastman was facilitated in large part by the opening of the Macon & Brunswick Railroad through the area in 1869. The East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad followed, before its absorption by the Southern Railway in 1894. This Victorian depot was built by the Southern Railway circa 1906* and remains one of Eastman’s most important public landmarks.
The depot, while not fully restored, is in good condition.
*- Sources vary as to date of construction. Some state it was built in 1906 and others say 1908.
So far, I’ve been unable to locate any information on this school, but the International Style architecture suggests it likely dates to the 1950s. It may have been used until the 1970s-1990s.
This bell near the front entrance to the school is probably a relic of an earlier school, perhaps the Lumber City High School. It’s not identified as such, though one would presume it to be related.
The marker beneath the bell was placed in 1921, perhaps at a slightly different location originally, by the Oconee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. It reads: This street was the old River Road blazed by Gen. David Blackshear, 1812. Six miles beyond in the forks of Oconee and Ocmulgee River was the second fort built in Telfair County by Gen. David Blackshear for defense in War [of] 1812.
The school has two wings radiating from the front entrance, which housed classrooms, I presume.
As seen here, Hurricane Helene left her calling card on the campus, A separate building, to the left, may have also housed classrooms.
The International Style is characterized by minimalism and is focused on functional and utilitarian design. The lack of design may be its most notable feature, and its simple form was very popular with Georgia schools from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. The most interesting element to the Lumber City Elementary school is the covered breezeway at the front entrance.
As with most of these mid-century Georgia schools, there is very little interest or hope for their preservation. While these structures appear to be in salvageable condition, it’s unlikely they will ever be reused. I believe the Lumber City Elementary school was used for adult education courses as late as the early 2010s, but has been abandoned since then.
Lumber City has had two advantages in its history that have kept it “on the map”. This small town (pop. 967) had easy access to the Ocmulgee River, and that fact drove its growth in the early years. Long before 1889, when it was incorporated and officially named Lumber City to recognize a busy sawmill’s impact on the community, the area saw the constant traffic of timber rafts running down to the coastal town of Darien, as well as cotton and grocery boats. Author Brainard Cheney (1900-1990), who was born in Fitzgerald and moved with his family to Lumber City in 1906, may be the town’s most famous citizen, though he’s largely forgotten today. An author who was associated with the Southern Agrarians, he wrote several books set on the Ocmulgee River, where he had been a raft hand as a young man in 1917, including River Rogue and Lightwood. Lumber City was the town nearest the confluence of the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers, where the great Altamaha is formed and flows uninterrupted to the coast. Of course the railroad was a presence whose impact can’t be understated and it was inextricably linked to the sawmill.
In the modern era, Lumber City is located along one of Southeast Georgia’s busiest highways, US 341, and milling and timber-related industries continue to operate here. In the days before interstate highways, hotels and restaurants like the Ivy Lodge and the Red River Tea Room were popular with locals and travelers alike.
An interesting historical anecdote concerns John Renwick, namesake of Renwick Street in Lumber City. One of his descendants, Rosemary Morrison, has written to inform me of this connection: “John Renwick, from Peebles, Scotland, lived in Lumber City between 1890 and 1914, and his sister, Janet (Jenny) lived with him from 1902 until his death, afterwards returning alone to live in Lumber City until the late 1920s. A cousin, Robert Murray, came with him to Lumber City, and also lived there. He (or his brother) was a trainee architect.” She also notes that a Miss Knox from Lumber City sent her late Aunt Jenny a scrapbook in the 1950s, containing numerous photographs from the Renwicks’ time in Lumber City, focused primarily on structures around the town. Some of the houses designed and built by “Mr. Jock”, as Renwick was known locally, included those of the McGregor, McLeod, Martin, Murray, Knox, Vaughan, Thormhalen, Walter T. McArthur, and Capt. E. K. Willcox families.
In 2024, Lumber City was devastated, as was the entire region, by Hurricane Helene. Much cleanup has been done, but it will take a long time for everything to be normal again.
Milan is located in Dodge and Telfair Counties, one of many Georgia towns with such a distinction. It was settled in the 1880s due to the arrival of the railroad in the area. It was named for Milan, Italy, and of course, has a Georgia pronunciation. It’s “My-lun”, not “Muh-lan”. Many people have asked me over the years why Georgia has such unusual place names, and it’s not just Georgia. The reason is because common names, especially surnames, were already in use and the post office department wouldn’t allow towns with the same, or even similar, names.
Milan became the focus of unwelcome national attention during the summer of 1919, known as Red Summer. The story is graphic, but as Black history is being officially censored in Georgia and many other states, it should be told. And to be certain, Milan was not alone in regards to such atrocities.
On 24 May 1919, two white men, John Baptiste Dowdy, Sr. (1894-1919) and Levi Evans, attempted to break into the home of a Black woman, Emma McCollers, with the intent of raping her two young daughters. Dowdy’s father, Rev. William Dowdy, was the mayor of Milan. When the family refused to allow them in the house, Dowdy fired his gun.
The girls fled to the nearby home of Emma Tishler and were followed by Dowdy and Evans. During the chaos, Ms. Tishler hid in a well. Berry Washington, a 72-year-old Black sharecropper, heard the commotion and attempted to defend the girls. Dowdy fired at Washington, and after a struggle, Washington killed Dowdy. Washington turned himself soon after the shooting and was transferred to the jail in McRae.
The next day, Deputy Sheriff Dave McRanie handed Washington over to a lynch mob who removed him from the jail and in the early hours of 26 May 1919, hanged him from a post at the site of the shooting and riddled his body with gunshot. His mutilated corpse was left in public view for at least a day, no doubt as an ominous warning to the local Black community.
This rather plain mid-century gymnasium stands behind the site of the old Fitzgerald High School, whose loss is still a great pain to the community. After World War II, when the high school outgrew its original building, newer structures were added to the campus, including the gymnasium*. It replaced the much older wooden gym at Blue & Gray Park, known far and wide as “The Shell”. Basketball was at peak popularity in Fitzgerald in the 1950s, so this was a regular gathering place not just for students but for the community as a whole. The amateur wrestling circuit made many stops here over the decades, as well.
I began high school in the 8th grade and well remember Coach Gibbs’s p.e. classes meeting here, playing dodge ball and other intramural sports. I also remember the wooden bleachers that could be pushed in accordion fashion to the walls. The building seemed ancient and derelict to me then, but it was so well-built that it’s still around. I’m unsure of its present use but am hopeful it is protected.
*- I haven’t tracked down a specific date for construction of the gymnasium, but my best guess is between 1949-1958. My father graduated in 1959 and recalls attending basketball games at the old shell and in the new gym. I’ll update when I learn more.
