I hope someone can help confirm the location of this store. I just found the photo while doing edits of my Laurens County folders. According to my data, it was made about fifteen minutes away from Lovett, but I’m not sure which direction. It is possible that this was in Johnson County. I feel like someone will know more than I do and I’ll gladly update.
T. C. Bobbitt was a very successful entrepreneur in Dudley, who expanded his grocery business to include dry goods and furniture.
Mr. Bobbitt, who worked in the grocery business for an amazing seventy-four years, started out circa 1914, working for T. J. Gilbert, before going into business for himself in 1927.
This store remained open until 1986.
Thompson’s Grocery is an iconic example of the shotgun stores that proliferated in Georgia in the first few decades of the 20th century.
According to the Hawkinsville Self-Guided Walking Tour, this structure was built for E. F. Dortch [by local draftsman E. A. Burch] and was among the first masonry buildings in the commercial district. The first floor was a grocery store from the late 1800s and served that purpose well into the 20th century. The second floor served as the Anderson Lodge No. 24 of the International Order of Odd Fellows in the 1880s and 1890s and as a Masonic Lodge in the 1900s and 1910s. In the 1960s and 1970s, the entire building was used as a Coca-Cola Bottling plant.
Hawkinsville Commercial and Industrial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This structure was built in 1914 and I’m unsure as to its original use. By the 1940s, it was home to the local Suwannee Store, a grocery and dry goods store. It was misidentified as the “Swifty Mart” by a local source but Debbie Mosier writes: The storefront that was identified as the Swifty Mart was actually named the Suwannee Store. It was owned by the South Georgia Grocery Company, out of Quitman. They later developed the Suwannee Swifty Convenience Stores. The Tyson Family managed the store for many years, Ethridge and Dolly Belle. A Mr. Futch was the meat cutter, and I believe his wife was also a cashier. My Daddy, James Frazier, worked for South Georgia Grocery Co. for more than 47 years. Other than his 3 year stint in the Army, it was his only job. He started as a bag boy and retired as Vice President of Operations. The once closely-held family company sold out after all of the older family members passed away, and the company went bankrupt shortly thereafter. There was also a Suwannee Swifty located in Hahira, across the railroad tracks, on the right. I can’t recall the exact location. My family lives in nearby Lakeland, where my Daddy began his career with South Georgia Grocery Company, working under D.L.B. Jones, manager of our Suwannee Store at the time. Now deceased, he and my Mama lived here their entire marriage.
(The name for Suwannee Swifty Stores actually came about one day at our dining table when Mama had prepared lunch for visiting executives of the company, Olan Benton, Executive Supervisor, and Victor Alcock, part owner. They were trying to come up with a name after the concept had been discussed and my Mama suggested Suwannee Swifty, related to the convenience aspect, yet keeping the original name involved. It’s history from there. That’s why they said that children should be seen and not heard…I was listening intently!)
Mickey’s Food Store moved into the building in the late 1980s and remained until at least 2009. It has been renovated and now serves another business.
As recently as 2015, there were plans to renovate these historic storefronts but it appears that the work has stalled. Though identification of the buildings has proven difficult, the three-story example is known as the Stanfill Building and dates to 1911. My understanding is that it was first used as a department store.
In 2011, Tom Lavender wrote: In 1957, I worked at Taylor’s Grocery the corner building. if my memory serves me right next to it was Choen’s dry goods. One of the upstairs offices was a Doctors office.
There has been a grocery/general store, and at times a restaurant, at the intersection of Georgia Highway 86 and Griffin Ferry Road for many years. The “fifth point” at five points is a dirt road, Findley Cemetery Road. There are countless communities in the state designated by geographical identifiers and though most are only known locally, they’re important landmarks.
This appears to have been a neighborhood grocery, probably built between the 1920s-1940s. The cylindrical brick posts are a nice uncommon detail.
Old stores like Key’s Grocery were rural landmarks. A Coca-Cola sign was a sure way to attract customers.
This store was also known as Hill Top Groceries.
Though it closed a few years ago, it has been preserved as a community landmark.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 