Oakville, like many places I photograph, has been forgotten by nearly everyone. It was likely named for a plantation of farm, since there was never a post office or railroad station named Oakville in Terrell or Randolph County. The only thing I could find, besides plenty of kudzu, was this abandoned farmhouse.
Sumter was a small crossroads community in Sumter County, just north of Smithville; it had a post office from 1884-1954. [It may have also been known as Sumter City]. It could just as well have been known as Webb, as the Webb family was in the area by circa 1825 and John Ronaldson Webb (1822-1881) was farming 125 acres east of Muckaloochee Creek by the 1850s. He and Amanda Melvinia Williams Webb had at least thirteen children. They eventually owned and cultivated 900 acres. According to the National Register of Historic Places, Amanda divided the land between her seven living sons in 1900. They all built homes along Highway 19 and farmed them separately.
This is one of the numerous farmhouses built by the Webb brothers. I believe three are extant, including the William A., and Emory C. Webb houses. This eclectic Queen Anne was owned by George Franklin Webb (1861-1936) and Ida Varina Goynes Webb (1875-1956). Together, these resources make up the historic Webb Family Farms.
The houses and historic farmland, along with the adjacent Liberty Primtive Baptist Church, are also significant as surviving structures of the nearly forgotten Sumter community.
National Register of Historic Places
This was made near Americus in 2008. The house is still standing but I haven’t rephotographed it. It’s truly one of the nicest Queen Anne houses in this part of Georgia, and due to its location, I’ve identified it as a farmhouse. Of course, with a house of this style, it’s hard to imagine it as a farmhouse. I hope to update the image soon.
As my entire re-edit of the website progresses, I continue locating unpublished images. This one dates to 2009, and as best I can tell, was located somewhere in the Herod vicinity.
I made these photographs in 2018, under the blazing sun and unforgiving midday light of August, somewhere on the outskirts of Broxton. I didn’t like the way they turned out so they were forgotten. This happens all the time. I planned to return to the location but never made it back and imagine the structures are all gone now. I’m glad I got them. They were elements of a larger historic farm.
The Queen Anne Folk Victorian farmhouse was my favorite structure on the property. Nature was decidedly reclaiming the place.
I photographed this old farmhouse on Herschel Vickers Road in 2009 and again in 2011. It looked about the same both times, but I imagine it’s gone today. Places like this have been sentinels in my dirt road travels for nearly a quarter century but are becoming rarer today. Most are just victims of time and the weather.
This Folk Victorian cottage is the center of an amazing historic farmstead. A breezeway connects a kitchen behind the house. Tom Peterson writes: This house was built by William James Peterson in 1876…William James and his wife, Catherine Joanna Calhoun Peterson, had 12 children, all born in this house. It is currently owned by Hugh Peterson and has been the site of the annual Peterson Family reunion since 1922.
The property is one of the most intact I’ve stumbled upon, and its numerous outbuildings are perfectly maintained.
There are at least four log barns on the property.
While log barns and homes are still built today, it’s highly unusual to find this many older examples.
I recently learned that one of South Georgia’s most iconic, most photographed, houses was saved from pending demolition, and its continued survival is a big win for preservation at the local level. James Horton writes: I don’t know if you have seen, but the mysterious Wasden farm house on the Greenville Highway, that has sparked so much attention, is getting rehabilitated. It has a new roof and a paint job, but no evidence of a porch reconstruction yet. That house narrowly escaped total demolition because the owner had scheduled a wrecking company from Atlanta to come down and disassemble it and sell it for parts! But a local guy has purchased it and is fixing it up for his daughter – we are all happy it has been saved!
Vanishing Georgia echoes James’s excitement for the future of this house, and we hope to keep up with the progress as it enters a new phase of its long life. Knowing that it was saved at the last minute does the heart good and is proof that people care about these kinds of places.
I’ve never been able to get a complete history of the house, even after speaking with architectural historians who have put a lot of effort into the research, though records suggest it was built circa 1884. It has been identified by several names, but Snow and Wasden seem to come up the most. As always, I’d appreciate more information from anyone who knows more.
Driving through the bucolic countryside of Hart County, I came upon this farm near Bowersville. As I slowly passed each structure and took in the scope of the property, I realized what an amazing place it was.
It has become rare to find this many structures still standing that were once the center of a vibrant working farm. I always appreciate the fact that there owners who recognize their importance and allow them to stand long past their original purpose has been fulfilled.
The farm looked much the same when photographed for an historic survey over 30 years ago, though the white paint was a bit brighter and one building has been lost.
Farms like these are the ones most people think of when they get nostalgic about our agrarian past. This may have been an larger operation than some, but it wasn’t a corporate farm running on government subsidies.
These buildings have been empty for many years, yet they’re still maintained as part of a larger property today. There’s still a farm here and the landscape is really something to behold.
This vernacular Craftsman home may be associated with the general store or commissary that stands along the highway directly in front of it; it was common for store owners to live in or near their businesses in the early 1900s.