These tin-sided warehouses dominate the downtown area of Bellville and are remnants of the railroad era. The mural was added sometime after I first photographed the buildings in 2009.
Note: This replaces a post originally posted on 5 November 2009.
Historically, cotton and corn were the principal crops of Terrell County, with peanuts coming later. Oxen and mules were widely used in farming until they were replaced by machinery after World War II. This gin and warehouse complex, just south of Parrott, is one of at least three that served the needs of the community over the years. These old tin buildings might not be much to look at, so to speak, but are nonetheless important to local history. Farming has always been the anchor of the local economy and workforce and places like this represent the business end of farming.
Parrott Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The first time I photographed this building, about 15 years ago, it was painted yellow and known as the Court House Deli. It’s located across the street from the Macon County Courthouse. It’s now known as the Bowlegged Grill and was still open the last time I was in the area. I believe it was a originally a store or office and is typical of the shotgun form buildings that were once common as commercial and office spaces.
It might surprise some that the name Air Line was applied to this community in 1856. It seems way ahead of its time. But “air line” actually referred to a type of railroad with straighter routes and therefore, in theory, quicker travel times. The Georgia Air Line Railroad was established in 1856 and ran through this section of Hart County, where a village and post office were established to support the enterprise. It was a modern innovation by 1850s standards and a vast improvement over earlier less consistent lines. Today, a busy store still serves the area, and this freight warehouse and the old elementary school survive as reminders of an earlier era.
The only reference I could find about Hard Cash was that the place name appears on an 1894 Southern Railway map. This indicates it was a railroad siding, perhaps with a freight depot for shipping whatever goods were being produced. I’m imagining cotton or even corn, but it may have encompassed a lot of different products. As to the Hard Cash aspect, I suspect it referred to a business owner not running credit accounts, and only accepting “hard cash”. That may be overthinking it, but it’s how I see it.
This old shotgun store was likely a commissary, serving farm workers or other laborers who lived in the area.
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
This store was built by Amanda Toomer and later included a pharmacy, the first such Black-owned business in Perry. The Toomer family ran the store and lived upstairs. Mrs. Toomer was also a stockholder in the Georgia Southern Railroad and a landowner. She was the sister-in-law of Amanda America Dickson Toomer, the wealthiest African-American woman in the United States after the Civil War.
In 1915, it was converted to the Toomer Brothers Mortuary and, according to local Black History sources, the bodies of the deceased were tastefully displayed in the windows of the first floor. Years later, it became an apartment building and has been home to some of Mrs. Toomer’s descendants.
This pressed-tin false front building appears to have been a warehouse of some kind. It’s one of several interesting false front structures in Lyerly. False front refers to a gable front structure that has had a rectangular front added. This is meant to make the building look larger and was very common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
For much of the 20th century, Denham’s One-Stop was the busiest store in Turner County. Before anyone ever thought of Wal-Mart, there was Denham’s One-Stop. It had a regular storefront and warehouses, like the one seen above, and as a true general store sold almost anything one might need to run a household. Generations of South Georgia schoolchildren from this region made ritual trips to Sycamore to stock up for the year ahead. Nothing like it survives in the area today.
This was one of the first places I photographed when I began the Vanishing Georgia project in 2007-2008. Nearly every small South Georgia town would have had a business like this at one time but many have been absorbed into more general agribusiness operations in the modern era.