These are some of the most authentic remaining tenant farmhouses I’ve encountered. Two survive, as well as the chimney of another.
It’s nice that the landowner has allowed these to stand all these years and though they appear to be in their last days, they’re important sentinels of another time and place.
Update: As of 2023, these structures are gone.
This house has been deteriorating rapidly since I first began photographing in Clay County ten years ago. The shake roof still survives under later shingles.
On 2 December 2019, Rodney Hiers wrote: This house was just recently torn down…saw it over the holidays.
Fort Gaines Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Marcia Killingsworth writes: This was my paternal grandparents’ house when they lived in town. Lawrence Madison Killingsworth and Ida Lucille (née Paulson) Killingsworth. Granddaddy had a farm, and was co-owner of the the cotton warehouse business...My Killingsworth grandparents lived there in the early part of the century, but it was owned by the Manry family for generations.
Update: Marcia Killingsworth reports that this house was lost to fire in 2023.
Marcia Killingsworth writes: This was demolished in August, 2020. She also notes: It was originally Hardage’s Grocery (at least in the ‘50s, but I’m not sure of its full timeframe). In my memories – late ‘60s – early ‘70s and beyond a couple of decades – it was Worthy’s, a gas station and, I believe auto repair. It may have had some snacks and things like gas stations did back then.
Darrell Sheppard writes: The old building in Allenhurst was Sheppard’s Grocery. It was built by Troy Allen Sheppard, Sr., after leaving Willie, Georgia, in the 1940s. It had the living quarters in the rear. After his death in 1967 Troy Sheppard, Jr., opened an auto electric repair and operated it until his death in 1991. It now belongs to Darrell Sheppard.
Update: As of April 2024 this structure has been razed.
The photo dates to 2012. The house was razed a couple of years ago.
This is located near Pembroke on US 280.
Update: As of 2020, this barn is no longer standing.
As of late 2021, this house has been razed or relocated. It was near the Bamboo Gardens on US 17.
Before the construction of Interstate 75, US Highway 41 was a main North-South route for tourists en route to and from Florida. Remnants of those busier times, such as this general store, are becoming quite rare. General stores selling groceries and sundries, as well as fuel, were essentially the convenience stores of their era.
Mark Salter identified the store as belonging to Palmer Greene. I’m not sure if it was Palmer Hamilton Greene (1889-1980) or his son Palmer Gibson Greene (1920-2002).
Update: As of April 2024, this store is no longer standing.
I first thought this might have been a school that was later transformed into a house, but that is not the case. Olivia Williamson Braddy writes: This house was built for Joseph Jackson “Joe” Powell (1871-1957) and his wife, Ava Cynthia Youmans. Five children were born and reared here. After Cynthia’s death in 1942, Joe married Maggie Keene Morris. Following their deaths, the house was sold to Schley Williamson and continued as a dwelling until his daughter, Vernery Williamson Cason, passed away in 2010. It was always used as a residence.
Joe Powell was a well-known resident of Oak Park, who besides teaching school, also had a reputation as a builder of many structures, both residential and commercial, in the community.
Sadly, as of 2019, this house is in ruins as the result of a fire.