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.
Near the depot in Boston is a small row of historic shotgun buildings and warehouses. These were related to agribusiness, seed storage, and livery stables. They don’t often get much attention, perhaps because they’re more utilitarian than they are aesthetically interesting, but they are as important to the development, perhaps more so, of our small rural towns as any bank or general store. The railroad was central to Boston’s development and these warehouses were directly tied to its success. In recent years, I believe they’ve been associated with the Boston Seed Company.
Boston Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
It isn’t every day a whole little village gets restored, but that’s what concerned citizens did in Metcalfe, and these two shotgun buildings, and another not pictured, have been given a new lease on life. They likely date from 1900-1920. I’m not sure their specific history, but most such structures were used as stores, warehouses, and offices. These are important as survivors of the boom days of Metcalfe, when the railroad made the town hum. They have no doubt witnessed a lot of history in their time.
Metcalfe Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Though you’d hardly notice it today, Pretoria was once a busy crossroad village, anchored by nearby plantations. It had a post office from 1900-1917 and was incorporated in 1907. It was named for the South African city. It was never much more than a crossroads, but there were at least two stores at one time. The old Pretoria Station, which was recently demolished, and this store, which I believe is still standing.
While re-editing my Butts County photographs, I stumbled across these two curious buildings. I believe they were located just outside Flovilla. Both are eclectic, with Victorian and vernacular elements. This looks like the common shotgun-type store dominant in early 20th century Georgia, but has an attached wing at the right. Such additions are uncommon with the shotgun form, so I presume it was added to this building for storage. I believe this was part of the late John Haney’s Fort Indian Springs Antique & Flea Market, so it may be something that he saved and fixed up.
The example above features hints of Victorian ornamentation but the stone columns take center stage. The concrete porch floor and layout of the facade are indicative of a commercial origin. A wing at the left would suggest an attached residence, or a later expansion for full-fledged residential use. I hope someone knows their stories.
At the extreme southwestern corner of Talbot County is the historic village of Box Springs. According to Ken Krakow: The community was named for a local spring that was boxed in and used as a watering stop for the railroad. Pipes were run from the “boxed-spring” to a water tower adjacent to the tracks. The name Boxed Spring was later changed to Box Springs, as it was easier to pronounce. A post office was established in 1853 though the area was likely settled earlier. The town was incorporated in 1913 and dissolved by 1931. Little of that era remains here today.
This old store, built in the early 1900s, sits in a thicket of privet and has always intrigued me; I may even have a family connection to Mr. Browning but need to research further. As the place succumbs to nature, I can only imagine it in its heyday, when the train stopped at the nearby tracks and people came through here enroute to and from Columbus.
For the next three days I’ll be sharing Halloween-related images for a change of pace. I don’t think any will be too scary, except perhaps the one coming up on Halloween itself. This is just a harmless medical skeleton inside the historic doctor’s office at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture. Anatomical or medical skeletons were commonly found in doctor’s offices in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The museum website notes of the office: The Doctor’s Office was donated to the Museum by the Boston Marketing Association, and is believed to have been constructed in Boston, Georgia in the 1870s. The initial structure consisted of one room and was used as the office for Daniel Alexander Horn, a farmer and businessman of Boston. Doctor H. A. Vann began using the building as his office in 1898 and continued to do so through 1925, when he retired. A second room was added some time around this date. The exact year of this addition is currently unknown, but research indicates that it was between 1898 and 1902.
Skeletons are actually more accurate symbols for Halloween than Christmas trees are for Christmas, but I digress. Halloween, literally All Hallows’ Eve, is the day before All Saints’ Day, and historically a time for remembering the dead. In the early Christian church, it was tradition to hold vigils the night before major feast days.
The spookier aspects of our modern celebrations surrounding the holiday are thought to have pagan origins, mostly brought to white America by Celtic-adjacent immigrants. A long-held belief that the souls of the dead visit one night each year and therefore must be appeased and guarded against led to many of the stranger traditions. Wearing costumes, or disguises, and and lighting bonfires and lanterns, are but a couple of examples.
This general store faces the railroad tracks in what was the commercial center of the Kildare community of northern Effingham County. Following W. H. White’s death in 1930, his daughter operated the store.
It’s typical of myriad general stores in Georgia, and was built in the practical “shotgun” form, more often associated with houses. It’s quintessential rural Georgia to me, and I’d wager that every one of our 159 counties had at least one place like this in the past. It was easy to build, relatively inexpensive, and served its purpose without fuss or fanfare.
As the iconic photos taken by the WPA and FSA photographers during the Great Depression attest, most of these little stores were covered with tin signs in their heyday. When those signs became valuable, the ones not secured by their owners were stolen.
At the shady intersection that is Cabaniss, this old shotgun store stands as a monument of the community’s past. The area was settled as Gullettsville by 1834, when a post office by that name opened. It closed in 1849. It was renamed for Judge Elbridge Gerry Cabaniss* thereafter and a post office for the newly named village was open between 1872-1904. There is a reference to a Castleberry’s Store in historical writings about Cabaniss, but I don’t know if this is it, or if it even survives.
*- I believe this to be Elbridge Gerry Cabaniss (1802-1872) but it could be his son, Elbridge Gerry Cabaniss [same name, not “Jr.”] (1845-1924).
This was home to the Stevens Gun Shop and has been a Danville landmark for many years. I believe it was originally a grocery store. Its owner was M. H. Stevens, Jr. (1921-2006), a World War II Air Force veteran, and former postmaster and mail carrier.
