I made this photograph in 2016 and never published it because I was hoping to get a better view at some point. I can’t recall where in Bryan County it was located, but I believe it was somewhere between Black Creek and Ellabell. This may not be the case, and if anyone recognizes it, please get in touch.
Seabrook Village is a restored African-American community, depicting life among freedmen and their descendants from 1865-1930, and is one of the most unique living history museums in Georgia. [Unfortunately, hours are inconsistent and it’s not always accessible]. The pending loss of the little one-room schoolhouse pictured above is what drove the community to come together to preserve their historic resources. While it may seem abandoned and in a state of disrepair, it’s actually an authentic look into the challenges most Black Georgians faced on a daily basis from Reconstruction to the Jim Crow Era. The Seabrook community was established through land grants dictated in General William T. Sherman‘s Field Order No. 15 in 1865. This was the policy which became known as “Forty Acres and a Mule” and it afforded many former slaves the opportunity to settle land they had once worked as laborers.
The offices of the Seabrook Village Foundation are located at the adjacent Eddie Bowens Farm house.
Meredith Belford writes of this house: [it] was moved from Trade Hill Road and fully restored at Seabrook Village in 1994. It was the home of Georgia Ann Delegal who was the child of freed slaves. Despite having limited education, her parents became very successful after their emancipation and amassed several hundred acres of land in the Seabrook and Trade Hill communities. They donated land for the original site of the Seabrook School and the present site of the Sunbury Missionary Baptist Church when it was moved from Sunbury to Seabrook in 1917. The house reflects their elevated status within the community.
This house was built by Pompey and Josephine Gould and was originally located near Dorchester Station. It was donated by Lula Gibbons and moved and restored in 1994.
This is a typical “one-seater”, built with scrap materials that were on hand.
According to the Seabrook Village Foundation, this corn crib was restored using original methods and tools. It was originally located at the Sam Ripley Farm.
Though it’s hard to see through the bamboo, this small house is a nice example of the hall and parlor form in the tenant context. When I stopped to make the photograph, its current residents, a wake of buzzards, was perched all along the rooftop. They flew away as soon as I opened the car door.
Set among vast open fields, this house is a landmark of of Clay County. Also known as the Hammock-Gay House, it once had a store next door.
This house was likely associated with the row of stores across the road. Though I’m identifying it as a Queen Anne, it’s really more a Folk Victorian interpretation of that style, and once quite common with prosperous farmers in rural Georgia.
This is a common house type, perhaps the most common in rural Georgia. The red clay was really what got my attention, though.
This is one of my favorite styles of tenant housing, and it’s quite rare these days. These small hip roof cottages just have more aesthetic appeal than the average tenant house and should be considered a critically endangered resource.
This is located on a hunting club and therefore not accessible. It’s a nice old vernacular house, though.
Many old farmhouses are used for storage and as hay barns, but this one has been outfitted to be a very fine chicken coop. This rooster looks happy about his living quarters.
The central hallway form is one of the most common house types in rural Georgia; this is a particularly fine example, with a shed room at the rear. It’s located just outside Brinson.
