This board-and-batten house was located between Collins and Cobbtown.
Tenant Farmhouse, Tattnall County
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Tag Archives: Lost Structures & Landmarks of Georgia
Silas Wheeler House, Bacon County
Stephen Dubberly shared this history of the house, via Richard Wheeler: The house is owned by Dr. Hank Wheeler; it was built by his grandfather, Silas Wheeler in the early 1900s.
Update: This house was dismantled in 2020.
Central Hallway Farmhouse, Wilcox County
This house is located near the Sibbie community. I have identified it as central hallway but it may be a single-pen. Leslie McKie Padgett identified it as the Walker House, I believe.
Update: As of 2016, this house has nearly collapsed due to being struck by a large pecan limb.
Smith’s Service Station, Fitzgerald
This old service station was built in the late 1940s or early 1950s and though it’s had many owners over the years is best known as Smith’s Service Station. Along with a few other long-derelict structures in the city, it’s scheduled for demolition in the near future.
Update: As of 2022, this structure has been demolished.
Single-Pen Cottage, Candler County
In this beautiful Southern yard, of the nearly forgotten but not-so-distant past, I always see a happy, well-fed cat. The house seems to be begging to have its picture made. A very authentic place it is. In a different version of this photograph that I posted on my personal Facebook page, I called the image “Southern History” because I think in this yard is as much Southern history as you’ll find in any museum. These are the places from which I learn the most.
An update: On 1 February 2018, Dr. Fay Stapleton Burnett wrote: I came by there today; apparently this house was torn down, as it is no longer there. The area has been graded, so I believe the landscape is gone as well. As a child, the Carroll family lived there. Mr. Carroll ran the small grocery store across the road. Rosemary Church Road was dirt at the time, and we lived in the farmhouse just down from here. Mr. Carroll was a fine gentleman – he always wanted me to “try” a piece of a new candy he had, which of course, was just his way of giving me candy! And, Mrs. Carroll had a little Chihuahua, and she fried chicken for the dog everyday! I always thought that was weird…..our dogs just ate scraps!!
Walker Farm Shotgun House, Irwin County
This house is being deconstructed. For years, it’s been a landmark in my travels around home. Rubye Walker Laminack writes: This was a tenant house on my Daddy, Marcus Walker’s, property. It has been completely destroyed.
She adds: Most of the interior wood of the Walker shotgun house has been used to add on to an exterior building on the Walker home place, which was sold in 2015.
The wood from the blue room was used, just as it was, to make a blue wall in the exterior building and is simply beautiful. Most of the reclaimed wood from the house was used before it was demolished.
John Teel House, Circa 1840, Sumter County
This vernacular Greek Revival house is the centerpiece of what is today known as the Teel-Crawford-Gaston Plantation or, more practically, the Gaston farm. The historical background that follows (in italics) comes from the 2004 National Register of Historic Places registration form. The farm represents two major periods in the history of Georgia agriculture, the plantation system and the the tenant farming system. John Teel purchased the property in 1836 and built the main house by 1840. He established a plantation where, by 1850, he lived with his wife, nine children, and 16 slaves. In 1852, Teel sold the plantation to Shadrack and Lucina Crawford, who after the Civil War turned the property from a plantation based on slave labor to a farm based on the tenant system.
The Crawfords sold the farm to Robert B. Gaston in 1918, who farmed there until his death in 1925. Gaston worked the land with mules and relied on the labor of tenant farmers. Gaston built the existing outbuilding complex to support the operation, most of which survives. James Monroe Gaston, Jr., Robert’s grandson, continues to farm the property to this day.
National Register of Historic Places
Trinity Church, Screven County
This is located just west of Hiltonia. It appears that some of the lumber has been salvaged.
The front gable features shingles at the corners.
The interior, which must have been a lovely space at one time, is merely a shell of its former self today.
Thanks to Rita Howard for the identification.
Tenant Farmhouse, Jenkins County
This is located just outside Millen on Highway 23. It was likely a tenant dwelling expanded at some point. An addition on the left is visible.
Update: As of 2022, this structure has collapsed.
Hendley Foxworth Horne House, 1853, Long County
I’ve photographed this house dozens of times over the last six years and recently learned that it is being deconstructed and the lumber salvaged for use in a new structure. The longtime owners of this landmark spent many years maintaining it and without their commitment to its history, it would have been long gone by now. I’m grateful for being allowed unlimited access to photograph and document it in its final days. I believe the house originated as a Plantation Plain, or I-House, the common vernacular style of wealthier farmers and planters in 19th-century Georgia. The porches were likely a later addition, giving it its present French Colonial appearance.
The first floor foyer is dominated by a narrow stairwell. To the right of the stairs is a re-paneled bedroom. One of the two main rooms downstairs would have originally served as a parlor and the other may have been a bedroom or dining room.
A “modern” kitchen is evidence that this home has served many generations, though the appliances and design attest to how long it’s been empty.
The upstairs bedrooms are largely unchanged.
As closets were not in use in the mid-19th-century, this one, with a simple closure, was added later.
The mantels are being removed and will be reused. The bricks in the fireplaces were made locally and are one of the best indicators of the age of the house.
In one bedroom, some of the wall boards have already been removed, revealing the beautiful rough-hewn local lumber that frames the house.
The second floor foyer is brightened by sidelights, replicating the appearance of the main entryway.
The foyer leads to a porch with louvered ends to maximize air circulation.
When the house is viewed from the rear, it seems possible that the hallway at the rear of the second floor was once a breezeway, especially when considering the larger windows in the middle.
Here’s the hallway.
It appears to be wasted space in the present form, and people in mid-19th-century rural Georgia didn’t waste space. Still, it’s a nice feature today. More of the original rough-hewn walls have been exposed by the deconstruction.
There are small rear corner rooms on each end of the second floor.
Corner posts are reinforced by buttresses and wooden pegs.
Here’s the view from the top of the landing back down to the first floor entryway.
And here’s a view of the roof of the kitchen/packhouse addition.
And another rear view of the house, showing the size of the kitchen/packhouse.
Unlike most detached kitchens which have been connected to a main house, this one only has outside access. The original kitchen is really a complex of three rooms. The first section likely served as a dining and storage area.
The second room was where the work of the kitchen was done, featuring a large hearth.
A small room at the end of the complex was likely used as a packhouse/root cellar.
I feel fortunate to have been able to experience this house. It’s a real gem.
