The public well was one of the most important gathering places in Georgia’s earliest towns and villages, as access to clean drinking water was a necessity and infrastructure was non-existent when forests were cleared for settlement. Though this well is dated to 1780, the well itself and the well house have obviously been updated over the years. Nonetheless, it’s an important place in the history of Culloden.
Culloden Historic District, National Register of Historic Place
This simple vernacular form probably dates to the 19th century. The well house is later, but a notable survivor.
Located on the Public Square, the old town well is Bowman’s gathering place. It was built by Goshen John Bowers.
Bowman Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Most small towns once had a public well and pump for the use of citizens. A few of these still survive throughout Georgia and are usually sheltered by a gazebo or pavilion.
This is a great old house, with a shallow well just off the front porch.
George Rachels III writes: Due to a recent accident, the original watering pool was destroyed when a semi lost it brakes and plowed through the park, in January 2015.
Thanks to Sylvette Walsh for suggesting this photograph. I don’t know how old the well is, but it’s right in the middle of the street in downtown Omaha. She notes that about 20 years ago, the well was a wooden construction with the traditional roof covering. Janice Morrison-Williams wrote that the structure behind the well, which I thought was a store, was actually the old post office.
The original section of this winged-gable tenant house is of board-and-batten construction. Note the shallow well in the foreground. This would have been an essential part of any rural property of this era.