This isolated saddlebag cottage, likely a tenant house, was identified in an architectural survey in the early 1990s and dated to circa 1900. The date is an educated guess but a good one. It is a slightly unusual variant of the saddlebag form, made so by the addition of a central window in the facade.
This house has always beckoned me to stop and make photographs, and I made these in 2011. It’s a classic single-pen tenant house, complete with “tar paper” to keep cold out of the cracks in winter. The last time I checked, it was still standing, albeit in worse condition. I’ve often encountered a wake of buzzards perched on the roof, and once even scared a bunch from inside the house. In my notes, I call it the Buzzard House.
This photo was made in 2010 and like many I’ve shared today, the house is probably gone by now. It’s a classic example of a shotgun house.
It’s strange how an otherwise nondescript structure can become a landmark, but that’s just what this little shed, sided with blue shingles, was for me. Located at the Mobley Bluff Road, just off the Ocmulgee River, it appears to have been a pump house or shed of some sort. I drove past it hundreds of times over the years. It was recently lost to Hurricane Helene. This photograph was made circa 2008.
This curious structure has been a landmark to me when traveling from Marshallville toward Talbot County for many years. It’s in the Garden Valley community. I’d love to know its purpose. I made the photograph a few years ago but I believe it’s still standing.
This landmark near the Savannah River has often been identified as Smith (Smith’s) Chapel, but further research indicates it was actually the Smith Chapel schoolhouse. Its architecture is typical for a rural schoolhouse of the early 1900s.
A 1989 Georgia Historic Resources Survey notes that the church was torn down at some point and this building was used for a society meeting hall. The sign someone added in recent years notes that the church was established on 28 July 1911. The resource survey dates this structure to circa 1934.
Old school bus seats used as benches or pews are a fascinating feature, something I’ve never encountered before. They wouldn’t have been here originally. Nationally famous outsider/folk artist Leonard Jones painted the sign in tribute to the congregation. His work on tin is widely collected. George W. Bush owns one.
The painting at bottom left gives an idea of what the church looked like, a typical vernacular church with a steeple.
The crossroads community of 13 Forks takes its name from the numerous branches and creeks that surround the area. I only counted nine on the map, so I must have missed a few. The community gives its name to 13 Forks Road (or is it the other way around?) and a granite slab and this old store building, dating to circa 1934, let you know you’ve arrived.
When trying to find a history of the area, I learned that it’s best known as the home of the 13 Forks Dragstrip, which was going strong in the 1960s. A 1965 flier I found online notes that the drag strip was open at 1PM every Sunday, and admission was $1.50. As to some of the attractions: Gene Cromer’s Fabulous Moonlighter, a ’40 Willys Coupe that did 6 foot wheel stands; Charlie Roberts, hurrying to finish that fiberglass English Ford; Charles Headen, still running Big Red, but sporting a new Mustang; Bennett-Hobbs, driving a new all glass English Ford Hydro; Ed Skelton, driving a Falcon and a new Mustang; and Dude Moore, really honking now in his pretty yellow ’55 Chevy...
Drag racing fans still return to the community for occasional reunions.
The churchyard of Mountain Creek A. M. E. is located in an isolated section of northern Sumter County and reached by a road of deep red clay, perched atop a hill. Named for a tributary of the Flint River, Mountain Creek may be a Freedmen’s congregation, but its history is a bit obscure, as is often the case with the historic Black churches I document. This little building is what beckoned me here in the first place, and it has proven to be as enigmatic as the congregation itself. When I saw the piano [below], I was sure this was the original church, but as I explored the property and learned of an Old Mountain Creek Cemetery, that quickly gave way to a different narrative.
The building is nearing collapse, and I now believe it was a schoolhouse, associated with Mountain Creek A. M. E.
The historic cemetery is full of stenciled headstones, and there are five gravesites painted a shade of bright blue, which some would call haint blue. They are the first of this color that I’ve encountered. [There is also an Old Mountain Creek A. M. E. Cemetery listed on Findagrave, which suggests the congregation was established elsewhere and later moved here. The earliest identified burial in that cemetery is 1902].
An historic church building serves the congregation today, and the front addition, known as the Dr. Russell Thomas and Sister Margarot Camp Thomas Fellowship Hall, was added in 1990.
The church is a typical late-19th/early-20th century form, with separate front doors for women and men.
This is located near Harrison Springs Church and lodge. It may be connected to those properties.
This is the kind of house I love to find, simple and functional, with tar paper siding and a chimney crafted of local stone. The overhanging eaves suggest it’s probably a relic of the late 19th century.