This Greek Revival cottage is thought to have been built for John Spencer Roberts, the founder of Georgia Webbing & Tape, an early Columbus industrial concern, though further information on Mr. Roberts or his company has not been easy to locate. By 1896, it was home to Joseph Hecht (1844-1917) and Adele Kober Hecht (1859-1920). The Hechts were Austrian Jews who came to Columbus in the 1860s and later established Hecht’s Candy Company, a successful wholesaler.
It’s been home to Charles E. Huff’s International Funeral Home for many years.
Martin Gottlieb (1892-1968) was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant who came to Fitzgerald in 1918. He was a merchant and tailor and an active member of the Hebrew Commercial Alliance throughout his time in Fitzgerald. He is best remembered for leaving the city a large bequest that was to be used to purchase Christmas gifts for needy children. The fund survives to this day. He also served as president of the Fitzgerald Baseball Club, the Pioneers, which were a professional farm team. The property documented here was originally Gottlieb’s farm, located just outside Fitzgerald, but now within the city limits.
Shop barn
Gottlieb eventually went into business with Ed Castleberry (1909-2003), and their Gottlieb and Castleberry Men’s Shop, located next to the Garbutt-Donovan Building on East Pine Street, outfitted generations of men in Fitzgerald. I remember visiting the small store as a youth as it was the place to order Boy and Cub Scout uniforms.
Garage
Eventually, Ed Castleberry purchased or inherited the farm from Mr. Gottlieb. Though more a “gentleman’s farm” than a commercial enterprise, pecan trees were cultivated and harvested on the property from year to year.
Volkswagen Beetle in the garage
Ed and Minnie Castleberry’s (1915-2006) son, John Ed Castleberry (1945-2023) continued to live here until his death.
Barn
The property will likely be sold for commercial use, so I was glad to have the opportunity to photograph it.
Abraham Ehrlich, born in Gehause, Germany in 1841, was one of the first Jewish settlers in Bainbridge, moving to the community from Valdosta in 1869. A peddler by trade, he served in the Georgia infantry in the Civil War, and was wounded at Chickamauga. His brothers, Henry and Lewis, migrated from Germany after the war. Abraham and Henry established a dry goods business in Bainbridge and Lewis had a butcher shop. Abraham died from an infection in the wound he received at Chickamauga. Lewis and Henry became the leaders of the local Jewish community, which soon included the Kwilecki and Nussbaum families.
The Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities notes that by 1878, an estimated 53 Jews lived in Bainbridge. Most of the male breadwinners worked in retail trade. This growing number of Jews began to meet together. In 1900, Rosalie Kwilecki began a Sunday School to teach the tenets of Judaism to her community, and remained its leader for over 50 years. The Reform congregation was established in 1902 and met in members’ homes until the dedication of this synagogue in 1916. The Jewish community in Bainbridge peaked in 1927 with over 220 members. By 1937, the American Jewish Year Book counted just 42 Jews in Bainbridge, largely due to the effects of the Great Depression.
Beth El’s membership continued to dwindle over the decades but remained an active small community. In 2018, the decision was made to dissolve the congregation and sell the synagogue. It’s presently a short-term rental property.
Bainbridge Residential Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
I love seeing old murals around Savannah. They often bring character to otherwise easily overlooked places. Frank & Co. was a thriving dry goods wholesaler in late-19th-century Savannah.
This Queen Anne House was built for Isaac Clarence Levy (12 January 1850-23 September 1897), a prominent Jewish merchant in turn-of-the-century Augusta. Levy was also active in statewide military circles, reaching the rank of Colonel. It has been restored and is now an apartment house.
Greene Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities notes: Antebellum Dalton had few if any Jews to speak of. Though more commercially open and successful than towns like it, Dalton was still emblematic of what historian Douglas Flamming called “hilly upcountry,” marked by “its self-sufficient yeoman farmers and its economic isolation.” …It was only with the advent of the industrial New South that a Jewish presence developed in Dalton.
By 1938, Dalton’s small Jewish community formed the “Friendly Alliance”, for the purpose of hosting minyans and coming together for High Holiday services in the Loveman Library. By 1941, plans to build a synagogue were made, but World War II delayed progress. The new temple was formally dedicated on 9 March 1947 and has served the community since then, albeit a smaller one today.
This Second Renaissance Revival landmark was designed for Jacob Rosenberg by local architect J. T. Murphy. It was modeled after the Neel Reid-designed Michael Brothers Department Store in Athens. Rosenberg originally opened a store in Troy, Alabama, with his brother, and then expanded to Albany in 1896. He married a local girl, Annie Cohn, and was soon the busiest merchant in town. Rosenberg’s was Albany’s finest department store for much of the 20th century, closing the downtown location in 1978 and focusing their business on the local mall.
It is presently home to the Albany Herald and is alternately known as the Herald Building.
Though there was surely a Jewish presence in Macon from its earliest days, evidenced in the old Hebrew Cemetery at Rose Hill, the beginnings of a permanent congregation can be traced to a group known as “The Eleven”, who met in 1859 to organize the “Israelitish community”. The Eleven were: E. Einstein, R. Einstein, E. Isaacs, E. Brown, H. Goodman, M. Landauer. S. Landauer, I. Weill, E. Feuchtwanger, I. Hershfield, and A. Dessau. The German Orthodox congregation was first known as the House of Israel, Kahal Kodesh Beth Israel. Reverend H. Lowenthal was the first leader of the congregation and the first official synagogue was located above Horn’s Confectionery on Cherry Street. The congregation built their own synagogue in the early 1870s, which was demolished circa 1902. The present synagogue was completed during that year.
Macon Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
I was honored to be at the ceremony dedicating a mural to one of Fitzgerald’s most accomplished native sons, Morris Berthold Abram (19 June 1918-16 March 2000). Mr. Abram was an attorney and tireless civil rights advocate who notably argued the case before the Supreme Court that ended the county unit system in Georgia that gave rural votes equal value with urban votes. The system was a juggernaut which allowed discrimination at the voting booth and gave undue power to local political bosses. The decision essentially ended voter segregation by upholding the principle of “one man, one vote”. I remember very well that many people in my hometown didn’t have a great opinion of Abram for his “meddling” in local affairs, but as a teenager I read his autobiography, The Day is Short, and developed a great respect for the man. Among Abram’s numerous accomplishments: He was appointed first general counsel to the Peace Corps by President Kennedy and served on various commissions under four more presidents; president of the American Jewish Committee; president of Brandeis University; chairman of the United Negro College Fund. My friend Richard Owens fondly recalled: Morris was George H. W. Bush’s ambassador in Geneva when I started my UN job there in 1991. It was phenomenal to have a Ben Hill-Irwin connection to a man of such stature and courage. His dinner table was famous for encouraging often-spirited debates among people from very different backgrounds and perspectives.
Penson Kaminsky, a lifelong friend of my family and scion of one of Fitzgerald’s oldest Jewish family’s, gave the invocation.
The dedication was done in conjunction with Georgia Cities Week and I must say that I was very proud of my hometown for the great job they did honoring Mr. Abram.
Fitzgerald mayor Jim Puckett presented a proclamation to Ruth Abram, daughter of Morris Abram, who was in Fitzgerald with her son, Noah Abram Teitelbaum. Ruth has been an advocate for numerous good causes and is quite accomplished in her own right. She conceived and directed the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, one of New York City’s most visited museums, and has been a tireless advocate for women’s history and scholarship. She’s also the author of Send Us a Lady Physician: Women Doctors in America 1835-1920. She recalled her father’s time in Fitzgerald, and the challenges of a poor immigrant Jewish family in early-20th-century South Georgia. It was quite moving, with Noah giving voice to his grandfather’s words.
Noah Abram Teitelbaum and Ruth Abram unveiling the plaque detailing Morris Abram’s work and accomplishments.
This landmark was the family home of the owners of Bluestein’s Department Store; it now houses the Burning of Darien Museum. According to the Breman Museum, which houses the Bluestein family papers: David Bluestein…was the owner of Bluestein’s Supermarket. His family had settled in Darien in the late 1800s when his grandfather, Meyer Bluestein, started a grocery business.
West Darien Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
