The Mid-Century font on this abandoned factory suggest it dates to the 1950s or 1960s. I believe Metter Manufacturing Company was still in business at another location recently, but may be closed now. This photograph was made in 2020 and I’m not sure if the building is still standing.
While not very aesthetically appealing, buildings like this had great importance in our small towns, often employing hundreds of people. As industrial agriculture began to displace many farm workers, industrial work often took up the slack.
I made this photograph in 2010 and these chairs, which sat outside the Laundry Room in Glennville, were a bit of a landmark in my travels. Though they’re gone now, they would have been the height of modernity when originally placed here. Modular chairs such as these have become icons of Mid-Century Modern design and similar versions are still sold today. While it may seem strange that businesses as unassuming as laundromats embraced this innovation, their durability and practicality made them quiet sensible for places that received a lot of random traffic.
When the Silver Skillet opened in 1956, 14th Street wasn’t dominated by the skyscrapers that define it today. In those days, it was quite typical of restaurants in the area. Today, in the heart of Midtown Atlanta, it stands out. And it’s not just the Mid-Century diner architecture that gets noticed. The breakfast they serve is among the most famous in Atlanta and people navigate white-knuckle traffic on the nearby downtown connector just to come here.
Sara and Tommy Haygood opened The Silver Skillet in 1956, in an existing commercial building. Jimmy Collins, who helped design the original Dwarf Houses that became Chik-fil-A, helped transform the diner into its present appearance for the Haygoods. The interior is largely unchanged today. In May, 1967 George & Louise Decker purchased it and ran it until his death in 1988. His daughter Teresa Breckenridge, has kept it running ever since.
As seen above, the red-eye gravy and country ham are a big draw. If you don’t know red-eye gravy, you probably won’t understand, but myriad fans of this Southern staple seek it out at the Southern Skillet. Red-eye gravy is usually made by mixing the drippings of fried country ham with coffee. The Silver Skillet makes theirs by marinating the ham with soy sauce, brown sugar, paprika and Coca-Cola.
The classic diner ambience of the Silver Skillet has been quite popular with Hollywood producers, as well. Remember the Titans, Anchorman 2, and Ozark, are just a few of the movies and television programs that have used the restaurant as a set location. Travis Tritt shot his video for “Here’s a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares” here, and TLC used the Silver Skillet for their video “Destiny”. Visit the Silver Skillet’s website for a complete list. And if you find yourself in the area, stop by for breakfast.
Identifying this school in my hometown has been a bit of a challenge. When I worked at the Fitzgerald-Ben Hill County Library in high school in the 1980s, I assisted on the Bookmobile and we regularly stopped beside this building and it was referred to as the Callie Garbutt School, likely due to its proximity to the church of the same name. It was not in use as a school at that time and may have been a neighborhood resource center.
It’s the fourth and final school to have been built in Fitzgerald’s cotton mill village. Two small schools originally served the area and were replaced circa 1910-1915 by a stone veneer building known simply as the Cotton Mill School. This structure, in the Mid-Century Modern or International Style, opened in 1957.
Our friend at the Georgia High School Basketball Project who knows these schools better than anyone I know did some digging and shared the following history:
This was built as Hunter Elementary. It was not an equalization school.
Closing seems to have been in 1965, or within a year or two of that. It was a Ben Hill County School. Fitzgerald still had its own city system then.
The name was previously Cotton Mill, but almost assuredly changed in 1957 when the Macon News confirmed the new building opened.
Looking at the state school directories, the building was possibly named for the Ben Hill County school superintendent, J.C. Hunter. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard of one of the new school buildings named for a superintendent.
I’m shocked it was actually built.
Hunter was four classrooms. The state was normally not into building schools that small. Hunter was close enough to have gone to another county school or for the county to have made arrangements with a city school.
It was grades 1-8 in 1964-65. I can’t find any articles in available online papers on its closure, but the state would have been pressuring Ben Hill to close it at the very least because there were four teachers for eight grades.
The old Hunter building housed a Headstart program in 1980. It had been remodeled in 1972 to educate mentally challenged students.
This building was the last school to serve the historically Black community of Harrisburg, south of Milledgeville. I’m unsure if it was just a part of the school or if it was the whole entity.
Prior to construction of this facility, there was at least one earlier school in Harrisburg, which operated from 1871-1952. The present structure was almost certainly an Equalization School, and as a result, was probably only open for a couple of decades at most.
In 2021, the building was initially slated to be revived as a library, but now serves a broader purpose as the Collins P. Lee Harrisburg Community Center. Collins P. Lee (1937-2008) was the first African-American city councilman in Milledgeville and later served as a county commissioner. He had a 30-year career as an educator, working as a teacher and an assistant principal.
Update: The Georgia High School Basketball Project, which researches these forgotten schools more than any other entity I know of, notes that Harrisburg was open, in one form or another, from 1956-1988. They also found that Harrisburg had around 15 teachers for all of its existence. Historic Aerials confirmed this was only the front section and that it looks like a cafetorium on the side. A long wing stood behind it.
So far, I’ve been unable to locate any information on this school, but the International Style architecture suggests it likely dates to the 1950s. It may have been used until the 1970s-1990s.
This bell near the front entrance to the school is probably a relic of an earlier school, perhaps the Lumber City High School. It’s not identified as such, though one would presume it to be related.
The marker beneath the bell was placed in 1921, perhaps at a slightly different location originally, by the Oconee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. It reads: This street was the old River Road blazed by Gen. David Blackshear, 1812. Six miles beyond in the forks of Oconee and Ocmulgee River was the second fort built in Telfair County by Gen. David Blackshear for defense in War [of] 1812.
The school has two wings radiating from the front entrance, which housed classrooms, I presume.
As seen here, Hurricane Helene left her calling card on the campus, A separate building, to the left, may have also housed classrooms.
The International Style is characterized by minimalism and is focused on functional and utilitarian design. The lack of design may be its most notable feature, and its simple form was very popular with Georgia schools from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. The most interesting element to the Lumber City Elementary school is the covered breezeway at the front entrance.
As with most of these mid-century Georgia schools, there is very little interest or hope for their preservation. While these structures appear to be in salvageable condition, it’s unlikely they will ever be reused. I believe the Lumber City Elementary school was used for adult education courses as late as the early 2010s, but has been abandoned since then.
This structure takes the concept of the curtain wall, a popular Mid-Century commercial building style, and prefabricates it into a smaller form. Numerous companies, including Fentron and PPG, made colorful panels for use in this type of architecture, but I imagine the company that created this curiosity was just doing ready-made kits. For most of my life, this was a beauty salon and it was located just a few blocks from my grandmother’s house. It always reminded me of the Partridge Family.
It has been here since at least the early 1970s, if not earlier, and looks much as it did 50 years ago, except for the intrusive addition of the roof. The original roof was flat, which gave the building a much more modern appearance. I suspect the roof was added to protect the building. It no longer serves a commercial purpose and is now used for storage, if I understand correctly.
I don’t know what kind of preservation can be done with places like this, but it’s certainly an eye-catching relic, reminiscent of a very progressive era of American architecture.
This neon sign, lit up along West Oglethorpe Avenue at night, may be the coolest thing about the Thunderbird Inn, but the whole place has an amazing retro vibe, harking back to the days of roadside motels. As American automobile ownership began to increase in the 1930s, quaint motor courts with numerous tiny cottages began to fill the need for travelers. By the end of World War II, motels began to replace them, because they were less expensive to build and maintain, and because tourists demanded more convenience. Motor hotels, or motels, popped up on busy state and national highways all across the country. The Thunderbird Inn opened on the Coastal Highway (US 17) in 1964 and quickly became a popular Savannah destination. The Jackson Five even stayed here on their rise to fame. Savannah has changed a lot since then, but the Thunderbird Inn has stayed true to its origins, thanks to restoration and updates over the past 20 years. I’ve stayed several times, and it’s one of my favorite locations.
Savannah Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The Elbert County Health Center is an excellent example of Mid-Century Modern architecture, which was uncommon in rural Georgia. It was designed by local architect James M. Hunt. Particularly interesting is the roof, which is known as an inverted or butterfly roof. Modern architecture was a common choice for public health facilities, as well as doctor’s offices and banks, in the 1950s and 1960s, and was meant to convey a sense of progress and innovation. The style was never overly popular with the public, however, and as a result many examples have been demolished. This facility has been abandoned for quite a few years and should be considered endangered. It wasn’t included as a contributing resource in the Elbert Commercial Historic District, but should be re-evaluated.
