The old post office in Cairo was built during the New Deal and has the characteristic architecture of the era. While some post offices of the time were built in the Neoclassical Revival style, this one is Stripped Classical, meaning, essentially, a “flatter” interpretation of Neoclassical.
An Art Deco patriotic shield is located above the entryway.
“Products of Grady County”, Paul L. Gill, circa 1938
A mural by Paul L. Gill, entitled “Products of Grady County” was originally located in the post office but is now in the Grady County History Museum, just down the street.
Cairo Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Bill and Evelyn Lett Bishop established Bishop’s Jewelry in 1948, and operated for 51 years. They sold it to their nephew, Mark Bishop, in 1999, and it remains one of the anchors of the downtown historic district. Most small towns had a jewelry store like this when I was growing up.
Cairo Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The Citizens Bank is one of the finest structures in the downtown historic district, defined by its narrow Neoclassical Revival facade. Many banks of the early 20th century embraced this style. Most examples are clad in marble or limestone. I believe this one is limestone.
Cairo Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Two historic freight warehouses survive along the tracks in Cairo. As a shipping point for syrup, they were quite busy, especially during the 1930s, when the town gained attention as the nation’s leading cane syrup producer.
Cairo Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The heart of Cairo’s commercial historic district is situated along South Broad Street and is largely intact.
The plaza parks make it a very pedestrian friendly area. A nice variety of commercial styles from the late-19th and early- to mid-20th century are present.
Most of these historic storefronts are still in use, and while few serve their original purposes, they continue to be the center of the community.
Cairo Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The Sanitary Barber Shop was established by Ben Lundy in the Cairoga Club Building in 1921. At some point, it became The Graco Barber Shop, which took its name from Grady County. It may be the finest surviving example of an historic barber shop in Georgia; it’s certainly the nicest one I’ve ever seen.
According to the Grady County History Museum: In 1936 the barber shop was purchased by Frank Massey and maintained by him until his death in 1965. One of his barbers, Winfred Robinson, bought the business and ran it until his retirement in 2010.
Long a popular Saturday stop for generations of Grady Countians it became much more than a just a place to get a haircut or a shave. Much like Floyd’s barber shop in Mayberry, it became the local information hub where people could catch up on the latest news and gossip. While they waited, pairs of combatants would play checkers while a group of kibitzers would gather around them and tell them what they were doing wrong.
Cairo Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The old Atlantic Coast Line depot in the middle of downtown Cairo was a busy location in its early years, carrying produce, and the syrup that made the town famous, to buyers all over the country. As dependence on depots waned, the venerable building was repurposed in the 1970s as the Cairo Police Department. Recently, a demolition of the non-historic interior was completed and a master plan to restore it to its original condition was initiated by Lew Oliver, Inc., a renowned architectural firm responsible for numerous successful projects throughout the region. I’m a big fan of Mr. Oliver’s work and know that Cairo will be pleased with what he will do with this depot.
Cairo Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, built 1920
A sign on this church dates the congregation to 1878, but further research suggests that it was established in the 1860s, likely during the Civil War. In its listing for the National Register of Historic Places, Brother George Donald said that Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church was “founded by African Americans who would slip off into the woods to pray in secret” and that the church began as “brush arbor” at Piney Grove, located southwest of Whigham. The 1878 date is likely when the congregation adopted the tenets of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
This lot was purchased from J. T. Harrell for $20 in 1878 and the first trustees were Brothers Thomas Young, Georgie Donald, Fortune Liphnidge, George Shackleford, and Even Swicord. They built a log church here, which served until it burned in 1920. The present church dates to that time. It served the congregation until the 1980s, when deterioration and dwindling membership saw worship move into the schoolhouse. Presently, the structure is stable but in serious need of further renovation.
Ebenezer School, Built circa 1930
Not unlike other Black congregations of the era, Ebenezer saw the importance of education and built this one-room schoolhouse to serve their community circa 1930.
A subscriber to Vanishing Georgia writes: Whigham had a Black school built in the 1950s. It was/is located only a couple of blocks from Whigham High School. It’s on Google Street View, but I don’t know if it’s still standing. Based on state statistics and what I’ve gleaned from Cairo Messenger archives, I’d put Ebenezer’s closure around 1950. One of my projects has been recovering names of Black schools before the earliest cumulative list of 1957.
I think I have all of Grady County’s segregated schools from the 1951-52 school year, when it reported to the state it had 12 Black schools. In 1950, however, Grady reported 21 schools, 13 of them one-teacher. Ebenezer would have been too nice to close before then, especially since it had an actual building that wasn’t the chapel itself. The Black Whigham school opened in 1956. Total integration was completed in 1970 and it doesn’t look like it was used after that, based on educational directories.
Ebenezer was nice in comparison to many of the other county schools for Black children and is an amazing survivor.
According to the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church: This church is thought to have been constituted in 1834. Henry Audulf gave the land for the first church, but there were no recorded deeds so, on May 7, 1845, W. A. Scandrett paid Henry Audulf’s son, John, one hundred dollars for the land. The first building was constructed on half an acre north of Broad Street but it was destroyed by a tornado… The second building was also destroyed by a tornado. Services were conducted in the school building until a church was built north of the present business section. The sanctuary was used until 1912. Under the pastorate of Rev. J. H. Allen, a new lot was purchased on the corner of Phillips Street and Hamilton Avenue and the present sanctuary was constructed.
Richland Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
