Tag Archives: Georgia Vernacular Architecture

Top Ten Posts of 2022

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With nearly a million views, these are our most popular posts of 2022. Thanks for traveling with me and for making all this possible.

#1- House Creek Boils, Wilcox County

#2- Apartment Houses, St. Simons Island

#3- Peches Stand, Putnam County

#4- Elizabeth Durden House, 1840s, Emanuel County

#5- Hunter’s Cafe, 1951, Shellman Bluff

#6- Package Store, Jeff Davis County

#7- Best Biskits by a Dam Site, Hartwell

#8- Flint River Diving Trees, Meriwether County

#9- Amanda America Dickson House, 1871, Hancock County

#10- Stonewall J. Williams Plantation, 1880s, Screven County

Shotgun Store, 1910s, Cusseta

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I photographed this shotgun-style general store in 2009. As of 2022, I believe it is still standing. A resource survey dates it to circa 1914.

Folk Victorian House, Empire

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This photograph dates to 2009 and I’m not sure if the house survives. I never published it, hoping to return later for a better view, but I never made it. It’s a simple hip-roof house with Queen Anne porch posts.

Empire was a sawmill town, which was established circa 1887 and incorporated in 1911. The name was meant to attract newcomers, but never had the desired effect. The Empire post office operated from 1887-1965. It’s a few miles south of Cochran, and part of the community lies in Bleckley County.

Gabled-Ell Farmhouse, Laurens County

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This house once featured a porch, as best I could tell. It is situated behind three massive oaks.

Commissary, Laurens County

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This commissary near the Lowery community was likely related to the turpentine industry and according to a Laurens County Historic Resources survey dates to circa 1910-1920.

George Linder House, Dublin

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George Linder, while enslaved on the Cooper Plantation in 1859, established Strawberry Chapel, the oldest African-American congregation in Laurens County. A preacher and farmer, he was one of the Original 33 black legislators elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1868 and subsequently expelled from the body. Though they were reinstated in 1870, the rise of the Klan and white supremacy helped ensure the end of black politicians in Georgia until the 1960s. Nearly a quarter of the Original 33 were lynched, beaten, maimed, or jailed.

Reverend Linder owned this house in town in his later years. He is largely forgotten today but an effort to publicize the Original 33 will hopefully bring him and his fellow legislators to their rightful place in Georgia history.

Thanks to Cynthia Jennings, who is volunteering with the the Original 33 project, for bringing him to my attention and sharing this location.

Double-Pen Tenant Farmhouse, Talbot County

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Like all examples of utilitarian architecture, the double-pen house can be found in varying forms, but it’s essentially a two-room house separated by a central wall with a door opening between the two rooms. This example has a shed room at the rear, which is a very common expansion. The form, once somewhat common, has become quite rare today.

Moore Commissary, Circa 1906, Junction City

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I believe this to be Charlie Moore’s commissary, which served employees in his milling and coffin building operations. William H. Davidson notes two stores in Junction City in his history of Talbot County.

J. Leonard Morgan’s general store wasn’t open until 1929, and this construction looks earlier than 1929 to me. I think this is what he identified as Marvin J. Hester’s general store, “located in Charlie Moore’s old commissary building“.

That would likely place this structure’s date of construction to circa 1906. It was a condition of Moore’s purchase of the Perkins properties [present day Junction City vicinity] that all structures of that enterprise be removed by 1 September 1906, so Moore likely built this commissary when he established the town.

Square Silos, Pike County

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Square silos are fairly uncommon nationwide but especially in the Deep South. They’re usually associated with the Upper Great Plains and Canadian Prairie Provinces; they’re often called grain elevators when built in this fashion. These photographs were made in 2016, so I hope these are still standing. If so, they’re rare resources and I’m glad to share them.