Opened in 1914, this handsome Renaissance Revival structure first served as a post office but has been home for many years to the Tifton-Tift County Public Library. It was designed [or its design overseen by] Oscar Wenderoth, who served as the director of the Office of the Supervising Architect of the United States Treasury Department from 1912-1915. It might be best known for its iconic gargoyle flagpole holders.
Tifton Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This was originally home to the Tifton Telephone Company. Later, it housed the Georgia Peanut Commission, before their move to a site beside Interstate 75 several years ago. The brickwork is some of the best in Tifton.
Tifton Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
If you’re a fan of home-style Southern cooking you should put Miller’s Soul Food in Dublin at the top of your list to visit. They’ve been serving up food and a strong sense of community here for several generations, and you can feel the history and the love in every dish. It’s the oldest restaurant in Dublin and one of the community’s most successful Black-owned businesses.
Mrs. Nadine Miller Hunt’s mother established the restaurant in 1955 and Nadine has been running the place for over 30 years. When her husband, James L. Hunt (1934-2023), passed away recently, her daughter Shenita Hunt, who has lived in the Miami area for many years, came home to help with the restaurant’s operation. Mrs. Nadine isn’t slowing down and is the very definition of a gracious Southern lady. In 2022, Miller’s Soul Food was the only Georgia restaurant awarded a Backing Historic Small Restaurants grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
In the pantheon of Southern restaurants, the meat-and-three is king, because everyone is looking for food like their mamma made. In my experience, the search rarely yields acceptable results. But sometimes you come across a place so good that you want to share it with the world. Miller’s Soul Food isn’t just any meat-and-three. Nothing is too salty, nothing too greasy, and nothing too sweet. Perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned. None of this dumped-out-of-a-can buffet stuff here. There are plenty of regular customers who will tell you it’s the best restaurant in Dublin and I believe them.
Of course they serve all the staples, like fried chicken, ribs, fried mullet, and sides like turnips and rutabagas. I’m more a mustard and collards fan, but on the advice of a regular customer, I got the turnips and they were cooked to perfection. For the more old-school customers, they serve up oxtails, pig’s feet and other soul food classics. Each meal comes with corn muffins and an old-fashioned hoe cake, also very good.
When I first walked in the door, I was warmly welcomed by Shenita Hunt. In addition to being dedicated to the legacy of her family’s business, she’s an accomplished singer, has toured professionally, and is passionate about her work. She was happy to play some of her recordings and she’s very talented [my favorite was her cover of “At Last” by Etta James]. Her work is available for purchase at the restaurant and online. Her family also owned a nightclub, Miller’s Country Club, about ten miles outside town, and she learned many standards of American music from listening to their jukebox and watching the musicians who worked with her parents. That’s where she got the music bug. Her family strongly embraced and encouraged her artistic interests.
Miller’s Soul Food is only open Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, so you’ll have to plan. But really, you should pay them a visit.
Dublin Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The Classical Revival Sylvester Banking Company building has served for many years as the city hall and was recently restored.
Sylvester Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The Vienna School, as it was known upon construction, was the comprehensive education facility for the city’s white population. An early project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), it was built in the English Vernacular Revival style, to replace an earlier two-story wooden school on the site. Bert Gregory notes that his grandmother, Marywood Gregory, was up early nursing her son Alton on Christmas morning when she saw the old school on fire. She woke up the others in the house and they called the fire department to the scene.
As is evident on the cartouche, the school was first called the Vienna School, but was later renamed the Jenkins School in honor of the superintendent who was instrumental in getting it constructed.
Vienna Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This school, which served Vienna’s African-American community before desegregation, was built in part with funds provided by the Rosenwald Fund and utilized it “Six Teacher Community School Plan”. It was built by Governor George Busbee’s father, who also built the nearby Lilly School. N. B. Lavender was the first principal.
The National Register of Historic Places listing for the school is a bit confusing, as it identifies this as the County Training School, noting the vocational focus of many schools for African-Americans at the time. However, the original cornerstone for the school identifies it as the Vienna Industrial & High School. An equalization school was built adjacent to the property in 1959, and the campus included all of the earlier Rosenwald structures.
A shop building for vocational activities was built near the schoolhouse, also in 1926. A second shop building (not pictured) was built in 1959 to the right of the schoolhouse.
A food processing/canning plant was attached to the old shop building at a later date..
Members of the Class of 1945 are remembered on the steps of the old shop building, including: R. Lilly; L. Chaney; R. Chaney; A. Graham; F. Smith; L. Smith; E. Bell; B. Godwin; H. Reece; G. Fudge; O. Barnes; G. Eunice; C. Wallace; and M. Edwards.
National Register of Historic Places
Originally located on West Cotton Street, this structure dates to the late 19th century. It was first used as a laundry, then from 1906-1922, it was Walter F. George‘s law office. From 1922-1976, it was home to several different businesses.
It has been moved a couple of times but retains its defining characteristics.
Vienna Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This building on Commerce Street has always intrigued me, with its row of chimneys and trompe l’oeil windows and awnings. I first thought it was an old firehouse, but apparently, that was in a different location. I hope someone can help me identify it. I would date it to the early 1900s.
Hawkinsville Commercial and Industrial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
According to the Hawkinsville Self-Guided Walking Tour, this structure was built for E. F. Dortch [by local draftsman E. A. Burch] and was among the first masonry buildings in the commercial district. The first floor was a grocery store from the late 1800s and served that purpose well into the 20th century. The second floor served as the Anderson Lodge No. 24 of the International Order of Odd Fellows in the 1880s and 1890s and as a Masonic Lodge in the 1900s and 1910s. In the 1960s and 1970s, the entire building was used as a Coca-Cola Bottling plant.
Hawkinsville Commercial and Industrial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
It’s unknown who the original tenant of this exemplary Classical structure was, but in 1948 it became home to the Pulaski Banking Company. Most likely, judging by the architecture, it originated as another bank.
Hawkinsville Commercial and Industrial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places