The Welaunee Inn originally served as housing for unmarried female employees of the Welaunee Mill, essentially a dormitory. Built in the Tudor Revival style in 1923 [some sources date it to 1920], it had 26 rooms. By the 1950s it was often referred to as the Village Inn, or simply, the Inn. It was sold by the mill in 1966. It’s a massive building, located on Broad Street near the center of town, and has rear-facing wings at either end. It’s still in good condition and though empty at present, has so much potential.
It’s best remembered today not as a hotel but, as Darrell Huckaby wrote in the Newton Community Magazine, “…the Center of Georgia’s Culinary Universe”. He noted, “In the 1950s and into the 1960s, Mrs. Effie Boyd served up some of the best Southern cooking this side of Heaven, from fried chicken and baked ham to roast turkey and country fried steak.” He recalled that Brown’s Guide to Georgia, the state’s periodical travel bible for many years, christened it the state’s best meat-and-three year after year after year. He also said that mill workers didn’t get lunch breaks during the week but folks from “town”, i.e. Covington, were faithful patrons. On Sundays, he said, people from everywhere would line up for hours to sample her Southern favorites. And, “If you have all those vegetables, you have to have cornbread and biscuits with which to sop. Effie Boyd’s biscuits were as good as anybody’s biscuits who ever sifted flour, and her cornbread came in pones, muffins or sticks, depending on the day of the week and her mood.”
Porterdale Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
It’s been quite awhile since I visited Berlin (BUR-luhn) down in Colquitt County, but I’m told most of the old buildings I photographed are still standing. This one, which featured in another one of my Berlin photographs from 2013, has quite the history. The architectural style [shotgun] leads me to believe it was originally a general store of one kind or another, but it’s best remembered as General Browning’s barber shop. Wes Carter wrote to say that there was a red, white, and blue barber pole out front. More recently, it served as the Berlin Diner, whose faded sign is barely visible here. Surveys I consulted date the building to 1950, but I think it’s at least 20 years older.
This photograph also dates to 2010. The building is gone now, and I just call it “Chicken Dinner” because that’s what the sign says. It probably had another name. There’s a Carter’s Fried Chicken on this site now. I mostly liked the Mid-Century architectural vibe of this little restaurant, and the globe lamps inside. I don’t know if you could eat inside or if it was simply a walk-up-and-order kind of place. I do recall the place being open in the late 2000s. It was located across the street from the Piget, another local landmark that is also gone.
When I first photographed this location in January 2010, it looked like a busy place. That may have been due to the fact that there was an automotive detailing shop next door that only charged $8 for cars and $12 for trucks. The restaurant was once known as the Corner Kitchen and I’m not sure if it was even still open when I photographed it. I imagine it was a good soul food restaurant, a meat-and-three kind of place, and considering the lack of restaurants in Cuthbert, was probably quite popular. The building looks to have originally been a neighborhood grocery store.
When built in 1907, this downtown Waycross landmark at the corner of Mary and Tebeau Streets was originally the lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elk (B.P.O.E). After the Elks relocated to another facility on Plant Avenue in 1962, it served several tenants but most notably has been home to several popular restaurants over the past 50 years or so. To me, the most memorable was the Carter House, where my family would occasionally eat when we visited my father when he was in town overnight with the railroad. It was just down the street from the railroad men’s home at the time, the then-derelict Ware Hotel, and featured homestyle Southern cooking. Besides the old Green Frog, the Carter House was perhaps the most beloved Waycross restaurant of its day. Whitfield’s and the Crab Trap have also been located here.
DowntownWaycross Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
A local favorite and popular stop for travelers through Thomaston since 1950, Piggie Park is an old-school drive-in specializing in barbecue, scrambled hamburgers, cheeseburgers and hot dogs, and Brunswick stew. And some people love their greasy fries. They also have handmade milkshakes. It’s a no-frills old-school place where carhops still come out and take your order, and judging by comments throughout social media, they are very efficient and always have a smile on their faces.
The original location was on the south side of town and when most of the development moved to the north side, Piggie Park moved with it. The neon sign is one of Thomaston’s most identifiable logos.
When The Founder, the movie about Ray Kroc and McDonald’s, was made a few years ago, Piggie Park was transformed into two different 1950s restaurants and used as a set location for filming.
Sidewalk tiles were once commonly used to advertise businesses, especially during the 1920s and 1930s, and were often seen in Art Deco environments. I photographed this one in downtown Macon in 2009. I have no idea if the sign remains nor have I been able to locate anything about the business.
Neil Joiner shared, from an article by Ed Grisamore, that the business first opened as the Crystal Cafe, in 1892, was later Loh’s, and after that, Jeneane’s Cafe. The building was reportedly the first in Macon to have electric light.
Macon Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
We made a lot of trips to Tifton when I was growing up in the 1970s, visiting the pediatrician and shopping, and Wishbone Fried Chicken was a great fast food place back in those days. It was located right downtown, across from what was then the Big Star shopping center on Love Avenue. Some of you may remember that Big Star was a grocery chain. I don’t remember shopping there, but we did on occasion. I just remember they had a televised horse race once a week and you could win cash and groceries if your horse “won” the race.
The last I heard, Wishbone in Tifton was closed but the sign was still there. I wish I could find out more about it. I know there’s one in Newnan, with the same kind of sign, so it may have been a franchise.
Update: Susan Anderson writes: I can confirm that the sign is now down, it was just taken down in the last few months. The building will soon be a new restaurant.
This was a restaurant, located near Clark’s Mill across the highway from the millpond. The structure may be an older one, but someone noted that as late as the 1990s, the restaurant was open. I’ll update if I learn more.
Shenita Hunt with her mother and Miller’s Soul Food matriarch, Nadine Miller Hunt
If you’re a fan of home-style Southern cooking you should put Miller’s Soul Food in Dublin at the top of your list to visit. They’ve been serving up food and a strong sense of community here for several generations, and you can feel the history and the love in every dish. It’s the oldest restaurant in Dublin and one of the community’s most successful Black-owned businesses.
Inside Miller’s Soul Food
Mrs. Nadine Miller Hunt’s mother established the restaurant in 1955 and Nadine has been running the place for over 30 years. When her husband, James L. Hunt (1934-2023), passed away recently, her daughter Shenita Hunt, who has lived in the Miami area for many years, came home to help with the restaurant’s operation. Mrs. Nadine isn’t slowing down and is the very definition of a gracious Southern lady. In 2022, Miller’s Soul Food was the only Georgia restaurant awarded a Backing Historic Small Restaurants grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
I had a fried leg quarter, a baked leg, turnips, and rutabagas. Both the fried and baked chicken were perfect. The photo, made on the fly, doesn’t do the food justice, so you’ll have to see for yourself.
In the pantheon of Southern restaurants, the meat-and-three is king, because everyone is looking for food like their mamma made. In my experience, the search rarely yields acceptable results. But sometimes you come across a place so good that you want to share it with the world. Miller’s Soul Food isn’t just any meat-and-three. Nothing is too salty, nothing too greasy, and nothing too sweet. Perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned. None of this dumped-out-of-a-can buffet stuff here. There are plenty of regular customers who will tell you it’s the best restaurant in Dublin and I believe them.
Miller’s Soul Food, Dublin’s Oldest Resturant
Of course they serve all the staples, like fried chicken, ribs, fried mullet, and sides like turnips and rutabagas. I’m more a mustard and collards fan, but on the advice of a regular customer, I got the turnips and they were cooked to perfection. For the more old-school customers, they serve up oxtails, pig’s feet and other soul food classics. Each meal comes with corn muffins and an old-fashioned hoe cake, also very good.
Longtime customers make a selection. It’s all so good, it’s not easy to choose.
When I first walked in the door, I was warmly welcomed by Shenita Hunt. In addition to being dedicated to the legacy of her family’s business, she’s an accomplished singer, has toured professionally, and is passionate about her work. She was happy to play some of her recordings and she’s very talented [my favorite was her cover of “At Last” by Etta James]. Her work is available for purchase at the restaurant and online. Her family also owned a nightclub, Miller’s Country Club, about ten miles outside town, and she learned many standards of American music from listening to their jukebox and watching the musicians who worked with her parents. That’s where she got the music bug. Her family strongly embraced and encouraged her artistic interests.
Miller’s Soul Food is only open Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, so you’ll have to plan. But really, you should pay them a visit.
Dublin Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 