This simple Georgian cottage is enhanced by a Craftsman-inspired front porch. Property records date it to circa 1940, but I believe it was built earlier.
Georgian Cottage, Collins
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Tag Archives: Georgia Vernacular Architecture
Farewell to Youngs Chapel
Following is a random gallery of some of my favorite photographs of Youngs Chapel Methodist Church in Ben Hill County. Since its no longer with us, I thought I’d share. I’ve made around a thousand photographs over the years, so it was difficult to pick just a few. I hope you enjoy them as much I enjoyed making them.
When I first photographed Youngs Chapel, in 1999, I was just beginning to appreciate historic architecture around my hometown of Fitzgerald.
I was nearly 30 at the time, and though I had spent far too much time rambling the back roads of the area, Young’s Chapel was new to me. It was proof that even in a small county, there was always something new to discover.
At the time, the church still had a wooden sign on the front porch, the roof was still intact, and most of the wall boards were intact. The pews were also still present, before being removed by a family member for safe keeping.
I learned of the existence of the church through an article in our local paper, and armed with a good county road map (this was before our phones became our navigators), I easily located it.
Over time, Youngs Chapel became an anchor in my travels around Georgia. Even after I had documented all 159 of the state’s counties, it held a special place in my heart.
On visits home to Ben Hill County, I usually made the 18 mile trek out to its northwestern corner to “check on the church”.
For me, it was a symbol of everything I wanted to photograph, the forgotten simple places people built to serve immediate and utilitarian needs.
When I went to check on the church at Thanksgiving, I had a heightened sense of worry. When I turned onto Youngs Chapel Road off the Lower Rebecca Road, I had a strange feeling, and as I got closer, I couldn’t see the familiar roofline in the distance.
Upon my approach, my worst fears were confirmed. Youngs Chapel, already weakened by a tornado and long abandoned, had collapsed sometime earlier. Somehow, I knew before I arrived that it was gone.
And so ends the long history of just another country church, lost not to lack of concern but to the elements.
The place wasn’t just an anchor for my travels and discoveries. It was also the center of a long lost community and held a special place in the hearts of the families who sustained it for over a century.
People moved away but their descendants still came and kept its grounds manicured and its cemetery free of weeds and brambles as long as they could.
Youngs Chapel was built in the waning years of the 1800s and was the heart of the long forgotten Ashley community.
Congregants first met in a brush arbor circa 1875.
They built this church, but moved it to its present location about three miles from its first home, circa 1890.
The land was donated by John Thomas Young, an area pioneer, and may have been named for him. It possibly had another name when it was organized.
The congregation dwindled over time, as older members died and younger generations moved away.
The last renovations to Youngs Chapel were made in 1971 and by 1974, the church was closed.
I like to think that the members would be shocked by all the interest in this little building that was their church home, but I think they would be proud of what they built and how long it lasted.
I am sad for the building and bemoan its loss, but I’m thankful that I was able to document it and share it with the wider world.
Five Points Grocery, Macon County
Five Points Grocery is located at a busy curve on Georgia Highway 26, and though I had passed it many time on earlier travels, I had never stopped until a recent trip to Columbus. As Mike McCall and I were photographing the little shotgun building, one of the co-owners, Naomi Weaver, waved and invited us inside. The store was closed that day for the preparations for a community wedding, but she was a gracious host, not rushed or bothered by all our questions.
Naomi related that she didn’t know a lot of the specific history of the building, but I gathered it was likely built in the 1920s or 1930s. It would have been a retail anchor of the nearby Flint River Farms, a New Deal resettlement project that helped area farmers build homes and buy property in the darkest days of the Great Depression.
It’s rare to find stores like this today, and even rarer to find them vibrant and still at the heart of their communities. While the owners have added a storage area at the back of the building, which Naomi was rightfully proud of, the interior of the store itself is largely unchanged from what it would have looked like over half a century ago.
Naomi noted that Mom’s Kitchen, which serves early breakfasts to scores of busy farmers and farmhands, was one of the biggest draws at Five Points Grocery.
This part of the store is reserved for anyone who just wants to sit around and shoot the breeze. In that way, it’s as authentic as any country store I’ve found. With the instantly gratified and hurried world that technology and mass market retail have wrought, it really is rewarding to come across places like Five Points Grocery and people like Naomi Weaver.
This is deep in Macon County Mennonite country, and if you aren’t familiar, the Mennonites of Macon County have been known for their hospitality and good food for a couple of generations. Alva and Sara Yoder opened the landmark Yoder’s Deitsch House and Bakery just up the road toward Montezuma in July 1984 and its been a destination for people from all over the region since then. On the day we visited with Naomi, we also stopped at Yoder’s and it was packed as usual.
Commercial Garage, Circa 1946, Dawson
This has been identified in tax records as a garage, and may have had an earlier use. Note the hearse, from the last post, parked beside the building.
Abandoned Church, Stewart County
This three-bay gable front church is located just southwest of County Line Baptist Church and its historic cemetery. It it possible that it served a Black congregation connected at one time to that church. It is missing its pews and appears to have been abandoned for quite some time. I will continue to try to identify it and will update if I can.
Saddlebag Cottage, Circa 1900, Quitman County
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.
General Store, Morris
This is one of two surviving stores in Morris. It is the larger of the two and this side view (above) shows a later expansion of the structure. It originated as a shotgun form. One of the two buildings likely served as the post office before it was moved to US Highway 82.
Shotgun Store Ruins, Morris
This shotgun form store or office building is located next door to the larger general store building. One of two extant commercial structures in Morris, it is near collapse.
Ford Clinic, 1930 + 1935, Bryan County
This structure served the medical needs of Ways Station-Richmond Hill from 1930 until 1951. According to the Coastal Bryan Heritage Trail, it was established by Mrs. Allethaire Ludlow Rotan as the Ways Health Association on 1 May 1930 and offered primary care to the community. It was first located near the present-day Community House, but was moved and expanded when the Fords assumed control in 1935. It played a central role in the eradication of malaria in the area. Dr. C. F. Holton, with nurses Constance Clark and Ella Reed Sams, served the clinic in the Ford era. And thanks to the generosity of the Fords, medical and dental services were free to all. The clinic ceased operation after the death of Clara Ford and was moved to its present location in the Bryan Neck-Keller area in 1951. Today, its home to a boutique known fittingly as “The Clinic”.
Carpenter’s Barber Shop, Richmond Hill
Bailey Carpenter (1910-2009) was Richmond Hill’s best known barber for over 50 years, and is still remembered today. When he died in 2009, just a few weeks shy of his 99th birthday, he had cut the hair of generations of local men.
His barber shop, now located on the grounds of the Richmond Hill History Museum, has stood at several sites over the years. Shirley Hiers wrote the definitive history of Carpenter’s Barber Shop, “A Mayberry state of mind” for the Bryan County News in 22 Sep 2010, and her article is the source for most of the facts shared here. She noted that Mr. Carpenter learned barbering during his time in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and began cutting hair around 1938.
Extensive conversations with long-time Richmond Hill citizens revealed that Annie Miner, who owned a small grocery store near US Highway 17, built a barbershop for Carpenter’s use between her grocery and a neighboring grocery store owned by Bennie Warsaw. And he did well, as he was the only barber in town. This is how he came to first cut Henry Ford’s hair, circa 1938. It was reported that Ford paid $3 for a 35-cent haircut, unheard of during the Great Depression. He even tipped Carpenter $10 on a couple of occasions. He was obviously pleased with his work.
Shirley Hiers wrote that Ford suggested Carpenter move his business into the back room of a two-story building at the corner of Ford Avenue and Constitution Way, but newer sources suggest Ford actually bought the shop and moved it to that location. (I can’t confirm either version). At this time Ford bought Carpenter a new barber chair, which he treasured for the rest of his life. For the next decade, Carpenter worked on the Ford Plantation while continuing his barbering. In the 1970s, the shop was moved across Georgia Highway 144, and moved down the road a few years later. In the 1980s Mr. Carpenter moved it to his backyard. After his death, it landed on the grounds of the Historical Museum.