Neighborhoods of nearly identical shotgun houses were once common sights in Georgia towns and cities where a textile or cotton mill was present. The utilitarian housing was provided as a benefit of employment. Most have vanished in the past thirty years.
Bartow Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This double-shotgun house was the home of Ben Strickland. Ben was one of the most interesting “characters” I knew growing up, with a vast knowledge of reptiles and amphibians. Some people called him the “snake man” because he was adept at handling the creatures and spent more time with them than he did with people; he wasn’t scared of them and had great knowledge of their ways, from a lifetime of observations. This fascinated many of us youngsters, even when some folks thought it a bit odd.
This once-common form has become quite rare today. The house is divided into two residences by a wall through the middle.
From a visitor named Lynn: A black man Called Shimmy aka Mr. Burt lived here. He lived here alone & his family lived about 2 miles away. He was my dad’s best friend. They both served in the Korean War together. My dad lived at 7038 GA Highway 208, two houses down from here. I spent a lot of my childhood in the front room by the wood heater. In the late 90s Mr Burt accidentally fell on the heater, burning his legs so bad they had to be removed. He moved into The Nursing Home in Waverly Hall. My dad passed away in 1997 & Mr Burt passed away 2000. They were lifelong friends!
This is about as good a view as can be had of this shotgun house in northwestern Wayne County. It’s located in the vicinity of Tetlow, which still exists on the map and in a nearby road name, but seems lost to history otherwise. Because there are the remains of several nearly identical shotgun houses at the site, I presume this was a turpentine camp at one time. The area in which its located was heavily involved in the naval stores and timber industries throughout much of the twentieth century; the camp was likely abandoned by the 1960s.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 