This is a Prince Hall lodge. Other affiliations include: Tri-County Chapter No. 8 of the Royal Arch Masons, and Fidelity Chapter No. 45 of the Order of the Eastern Star.
Landmark Lodge No. 64, Dublin
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Tag Archives: Georgia Stone Veneer/Granitoid Buildings
General Store, Hancock County
I believe this was a neighborhood store, out in the country, and if memory serves me correctly it’s located between Devereux and Milledgeville.
Garage, Sylvania
This is located next door to the old jail and may have been a public business or a city barn.
Shields-Ethridge Heritage Farm, Jackson County
This property was originally settled by Joseph Shields and sons James and Patrick in 1802.
With two slaves, they cleared and cultivated the land.
When Joseph died in 1818, he willed the land to his son, James and by 1860, 20 enslaved people worked the land.
James died in 1863 and in 1865 his widow, Charity, signed a contract with three of her former slaves, providing them housing and food in exchange for their work on the farm.
When James and Charity’s son, Joseph Robert Shields, returned home from the Civil War in 1866, he built the main house and soon applied the sharecropping system to the entire farm, managing many of his former slaves alongside poor white farmers.
By 1890, the farm had grown to 1000 acres.
In 1897, Joseph Robert’s daughter Susan Ella returned to the farm with her husband Ira Washington Ethridge.
Joseph Robert Shields died in 1910 and Susan Ella and Ira inherited the house and surrounding property.
To hedge his bets against increasingly unstable cotton prices, Ira Ethridge built a self-sustaining sharecropper’s “village” near the main house.
In 1914, “Mr. Ira” transformed the main house from its historical Plantation Plain appearance to it present Neoclassical appearance by adding columns and raising the porch.
The structures seen today were built between 1900-1930. Most of the sharecropper housing is gone today, but a few scattered examples survive.
When Ira died in 1945, his son Lanis understood that the farm would soon be changed by mechanization.
He diversified and in the early 1950s began breeding cattle and slowly expanding pastureland on his acreage.
At his death in 1970, the sharecropper’s village was long abandoned.
His widow, Joyce Ethridge, began documenting the history of the farm.
In 1994 she and daughters Susan E. Chaisson and Ann E. Lacey gave 150 acres of the farm to the Shields-Ethridge Farm Foundation to preserve the site as an agricultural museum.
Joyce’s research also led to the listing of the property on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Shields-Ethridge Heritage Farm is the most intact collection of historic farm structures in their original location in Georgia.
It is truly awe-inspiring and worth a visit.
As someone who has spent years seeking out structures like these, I can’t tell you how important this place is.
You must see it for yourself.
National Register of Historic Places + Georgia Centennial Farm
Note- This replaces a post originally published on 11 July 2021, necessitated by formatting issues.
Historic Storefronts, Lexington
The historic building on the right is clad in granite, a common building material in this area, which is located near the western extent of the Lexington-Oglesby Blue Granite Belt.
Lexington Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Vinson’s Pharmacy, 1910, Byron
This structure was built by Dr. Moultrie Warren as a medical office and drug store. It was later home to Vinson’s Pharmacy and then Robertson’s Pharmacy. It has been repurposed today as the Drugstore Deli.
Byron Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Old Stone Church, 1852, Ringgold
This congregation was organized on 2 September 1837 as the Chickamauga Presbyterian Church and is believed to be the first church in what is now Catoosa County. A log cabin and nearby home served as the first meeting places. The organizers were a group of Scotch Irish Presbyterians from Tennessee or the Carolinas and the charter members were Robert Magill, James H. McSpadden, Robert C. Cain, Sarah Black, Alfred McSpadden, Fanny Magill, Susan McSpadden, Winfred Cain, Margaret Cain and Nancy Tipton.
In 1850 construction on this structure began. Member Robert Magi and his brothers hauled limestone quarried at White Oak Mountain to this site and the church was completed in 1852. The church served as a Confederate hospital during the Civil War, and was also commandeered for use by Union troops. The name was changed to Stone Church in 1912 and in 1921 it was transferred to a Methodist congregation. It was used by other congregations subsequently and is now owned and maintained by the Catoosa County Historical Society.
National Register of Historic Places
Central of Georgia Railway Depot, 1880, Jonesboro
Most sources note that this depot was built in 1867, which it was, but it wasn’t built in Jonesboro. During the Battle of Jonesboro, on 31 August 1864, Union troops burned the original 1846 Macon and Western Railroad Depot and the rail bed turned into what came to be known as “Sherman’s neckties”.
As Todd DeFeo notes, It’s not enough to say Jonesboro’s depot was built in 1867. The structure seen here was built for the Macon and Western in Barnesville in 1867 and moved stone-by-stone and rebuilt at this location in 1880. By this time, it would have been a Central of Georgia-branded property.
It’s home to the Clayton County Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Road to Tara Museum.
Jonesboro Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Granite Store, Circa 1900, Klondike
A post office was established at Klondike in 1898, and this structure, clad in local granite, is representative of this industry. This is the oldest of just a few surviving commercial structures related to the community. According to a Georgia State University resource survey completed in 2016, it once served as a granite store and was most recently used as the Oak Grove Junction Convenience Store. It is a critical resource for the community and should be preserved.
[This view was made from the rear of the building. The front is nearly identical.]
Klondike Historic District, National Register of Historic Places & Arabia Mountain National Heritage Preserve
Bruce Street School Ruins, 1938, Lithonia
Also known as the Lithonia Colored School, the Bruce Street School was opened in 1938 as the first public school for Black children in Lithonia. It was built as a community effort, with granite from local quarries. These ruins are presently the subject of community input for future use.
Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 