This South Georgia Grocery Company was a wholesaler established by Samuel Stevens Rountree (1855-1952) in 1903.
Samuel S. Rountree on his 93rd birthday. Photograph via Atlanta Journal Magazine, 1948
The company eventually had seven locations and Rountree divided into several independent businesses, including Capital City Grocery Company of Tallahassee, Rountree Grocery Company of Americus, and a branch in Waycross. He also owned controlling interest in one of South Georgia’s first grocery chains, Suwannee Stores. Mr. Rountree was one of Quitman’s most successful businessmen and president of the Bank of Quitman from 1917-1945. He was the subject of a 1 August 1948 Atlanta Journal Magazine article which identified him as the nation’s oldest active banker. The article noted that “He always wears a flower and goes to the bank every day”. He had few hobbies, but was a big horse racing fan and in his younger years made the trip to Saratoga and Belmont each year.
Many small Georgia towns have areas like this one on South Washington Street that were once vibrant commercial areas, now abandoned to the elements. Most of these buildings are just shells, with the roofs long gone.
One can only imagine what businesses were located here at this point. They’re located on South Washington Street near the railroad tracks. Some may have been businesses related to the railroad, and there was probably a grocery or general store, as well.
I’m not sure what the original use of this corner entrance structure was, but I remember there being a sign near the back section for Boston Feed & Seed at one time. I think it was probably an office for the warehouses located along the street behind it. Like many of the buildings in downtown Boston, it likely dates to the early 20th century.
Boston Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
When this commercial garage was built, Jefferson Street (also known as the Old Boston Road) was the first east-west paved highway in southwest Georgia. It later became US Highway 84. This was the era when automobiles were first becoming widespread and entrepreneurs were first establishing businesses to serve this new mode of transportation. It has also been suggested that this building later served as a Ford dealership.
Boston Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This historic Victorian storefront is one of the nicest still standing in downtown Boston. I imagine it housed several businesses in its early days and has been home to many more since. It was likely built around 1900-1910.
Boston Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
I don’t know if this place is still open, but it’s the kind of business every town used to have, which did automotive upholstery and custom glass work. It appears to have originated as a mid-century (1940s-circa 1960) commercial garage and possibly was also a filling station. I just like the sign and the building.
Thomasville has a long railroad history, with its first known depot being built circa 1861 (demolished 1950s). At the height of the town’s position as one of the busiest winter resorts in the nation, a much larger depot was built by the Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad in 1886. The tourist trade waned by the early 1900s, when passenger railroads pushed most of the business into Florida, but Thomasville continued to grow, well-served by its established railroad presence.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Depot seen here was built in 1914, on the site of the Savannah, Florida & Western depot. It’s a landmark of the Mission Revival style, popular at the time. One end of the building (above photo) featured a restaurant, open 24 hours a day, and the other was the baggage room. Both are identified by their function on a terra cotta panel above the windows.
In the 1920s and 1930s, about 34 passenger trains arrived or departed in Thomasville daily, and the depot was a hub of local activity. By the early 1960s, passenger trains were being replaced by commercial airlines as travel options, and only a few trains came through Thomasville on occasion. The restaurant closed in 1969, and in 1979, the sole surviving passenger train running through Thomasville, by that time the Amtrak “Floridian”, was discontinued, and the depot closed.
Since being restored in the 2000s, the depot is now home to several businesses, including a restaurant.
A personal note: In conversation with my father, he told me that he worked out of this depot circa 1966-1967. He said while still a trainman for Atlantic Coast Line (and then Seaboard Coast Line) he had a Thomasville-Moultrie assignment. He drove from Fitzgerald to Thomasville and stayed in a boarding house near the depot. He said the tracks were so bad between Thomasville and Moultrie that the switch engine that made the run every day, known as “Butt Head”, topped out at around 15mph. He also remembered many of the men he worked with, including James Griffin, Glenn Alexander, Ed Cox, Julian Hunter, Bruce RIgdon, Henry Whitten, and C. W. Faulkner. He recalled the restaurant being open in those days, as well.
Included with the depot on the National Register of Historic Places, the Railway Express Agency office was built in 1928 to replace an earlier frame building, and served passengers until 1971. It’s located in the depot parking lot. Before UPS and FedEx, express agencies used the rails to move packages throughout the country. Thomasville is known to have had express service since at least 1865.
The village of Avalon is hard to distinguish from nearby Martin, Georgia, today, but it was once a settlement unto itself. The two communities are less than a mile and a half apart. Richard Dempsey Yow (1844-1899) founded the community in 1880, when a post office named Avalon was opened, though most sources date the founding to 1882. Yow and his brother, Thomas Russell Yow (1855-1922), ran a successful mercantile here. [It may have been in the building pictured here, but I have been unable to confirm at this time.] Cooper and Meier were other merchants associated with this structure. The post office located in this block closed in 1955, long past Avalon’s prime, but this village, named for the island of Arthurian lore, hasn’t completely disappeared.
