I first thought this to be a WPA construction, but the 1932 date is a bit early for that. It was orginally built as a post office and is very similar to many WPA-era post offices.
Fort Valley Downtown & Railroad Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Cuthbert’s Mid-Century Modern City Hall was a project of the WPA, near the tail-end of funding for the New Deal agency. It’s a quiet landmark of governmental architecture and utilitarian design. The bell seen in the first image lists the names of the committee members who oversaw its construction.
Cuthbert Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Unless you’re from Irwin or a nearby county, you probably know very little about the Irwinville Farms Project. It was one of numerous resettlement communities overseen during the Great Depression by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the Resettlement Administration (RA). As today, there was much debate over the role of the government in dispensing what many considered welfare, but the FSA and RA were much more than that. They brought modern agricultural practices and equipment where there had been none, and they brought vaccines and health awareness in much the same way. In the process, they fostered a strong value system and sense of community that remains among descendants and survivors of the project.
Irwinville Farms: The Making of a Community is one of the best local histories I’ve seen in a long time, and not just because I’ve always been fascinated with the area, but because it goes beyond local folklore and hearsay to provide detailed statistics about all the farm families involved with the projects. Joy and her son Gary McDaniel went to the Library of Congress while she was compiling the primary documentation for the book and sifted through and photographed three boxes full of original material related to Irwinville Farms.
The book also tells the story of the Jefferson Davis Historic Site, another project of the federal government during the Great Depression, and of the legendary Irwinville Farmers basketball team of the 1940s. Photos from the Library of Congress, as well as other rarely seen images, are well distributed throughout the book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of Irwin County, agriculture, or the Great Depression. It is very well done and quite enjoyable.
Irwinville Farms: The Making of a Community is currently available for $30 plus $5 for shipping. To make a purchase, contact Joy at 770-345-2562 or by e-mail at joy_mcdaniel@comcast.net.
Son of sharecropper who will be resettled on the Irwinville Farms Project, Georgia. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, August 1935, Courtesy Library of Congress. This is Joy Wilson McDaniel’s brother, Bill Wilson.
Near White Plains, Georgia. Jack Delano, ca. 1941. Library of Congress.
Before I had an interest in photography I knew Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother. Elementary school textbooks, at least of my era, often used the copyright-free image to symbolize the hardships of the Great Depression. My great-grandmother regularly referred to “Hoover Days”. I consider my interest in vernacular architecture, which makes up the bulk of my public work, to be a direct result of my exposure to the FSA photographers. In addition to Lange, there were Walker Evans, Marion Post Wolcott, Gordon Parks, Carl Mydans, Russell Lee, Arthur Rohtstein, John Vachon, and Jack Delano.It’s amazing how many people know these photographs, whether they know their histories or not. They’re indelibly linked to the history of America in the 20th century.
I’d appreciate if any of my regular visitors to Vanishing South Georgia who’ve previously shared memories of the Great Depression would also share them on the new site. This site will also utilize historic family photos from time to time. Georgia in the Great Depression will only be updated irregularly (5-10 posts/month), but I’ll always welcome memories and stories from the era.
This was built by the Federal Emergency Administration as a New Deal project.
Blakely Court Square Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The present courthouse replaced a two-story wooden structure which burned in 1920. Due to economic hard times, the county rented warehouse space for use as a temporary courthouse until this was built with federal relief funds during the Great Depression.
National Register of Historic Places
One of the later New Deal post offices built in Georgia, this is also one of the nicest, in my opinion. I’m astonished that this property isn’t listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The eagle sculpture above the entrance is by Sardinian sculptor Albino Manca, who came to the United States from Italy in 1938.
This is part of the terracotta relief sculpture Wild Duck and Deer, also the work of Manca.
Even the original Civil Service Bulletin Board is in excellent condition.
The Cogdell School was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1939.
Joan Burnett Bond writes: I went to school here 1946 to 1951. Our family lived “catty corner” across the street at the back of the school. Ann Sessoms was my teacher and as I recall she had 1st through 5th grade all in one classroom. I took music lessons and practiced and did recitals in the auditorium. I can’t believe this beautiful brick structure has been left to rot away. I played jacks on the stoop in the back of the school for many years, this is where we girls met to play daily.
This was built quite late for a New Deal post office. A testament to the construction methods and workmanship, many of the post offices built during the Great Depression and World War II are still in use.
Designed for the WPA under the supervision of William J. J. Chase, the architecture of this courthouse, like the one Chase designed for Cook County, is Stripped Classical. The eagles surrounding the clock add an Art Deco element.
Camilla Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places