This well-maintained Folk Victorian was located near the Rushing Barn and may have been part of the John Rushing farm. The photo is a few years old but the house is still standing, to my knowledge.
I made this photograph in 2013 and don’t know the fate of this little saddlebag cottage. It was located near a larger farm, so I presume it was a tenant dwelling.
I originally published this photograph on 17 July 2012, but the file was temporarily lost. I’m glad to have relocated it. Allison Charles wrote that her mother owned the land and she lived here as a young child. She said she called it “the old white house”.
In architectural parlance, pen is just another word for room, and when considering the hard lives sharecroppers faced, it seems cruelly appropriate. Some call these utilitarian houses “early duplexes” and in some cases, it’s true that two families lived in them, but more often than not, the term double-pen just means two rooms.
The Georgia Historic Preservation Divisions has this to say about the double-pen cottage: “Double-pen houses consist of two rooms, typically square. As in the single-pen house, the arrangement and location of openings varies, but the most easily recognizable double-pen house has two doors in the main facade. Chimneys or flues may be located at either or both ends. Gabled roofs are the most common by far. Few double-pen houses remain in their original form in Georgia. Most of these were constructed for agricultural or industrial workers between the 1870s and 1930s…”
I believe this tenant house is the last remaining structure on this historic farm property. The Durrence family had a large tobacco operation here at one time. As to the house, it sits on modern tapered cinderblock piers so it has been re-settled, as a means of preservation. It has no impact on the importance of the structure. .
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.
This substantial farmhouse is set among pecan trees and looks as it probably did fifty years ago. I believe it’s in the southern part of the county. I made this photograph in 2018 but as far as I know it is still standing.
The more aware I’ve become of the rarity of double-shotgun houses, the more intrigued I am by the form. This cottage in Tattnall County is clearly a double-shotgun, but it is also pyramidal. It’s a great illustration of the overlap in vernacular forms. These structures were almost always associated with tenant farming but many were modified for later use as one-family residences or cabins. This example is a favorite and truly one of the nicest I’ve found.
Note: This updates and replaces a post originally published on 26 October 2014.
I photographed this partly deconstructed farmhouse with Mike McCall in 2010. I’m unsure as to its fate, but it was a nice example of a common type of rural housing in this area. The gable vents are of a style I call “vernacular Gothic” for lack of a better term. I guess “church window” vents would also apply. Whatever their correct terminology, they were once widespread in this part of Southeast Georgia.
This was the country home of James Charles “J.C” and Madeline Chapman Huckleby.
This well-maintained home on US Highway 301/Georgia Highway 57 appears to have originated as a central hallway form. Like so many others of this type, it was later expanded to accommodate a growing family. Tax records date it to 1930, but I believe the front (original) section is older.