Shotgun Houses, Brunswick

With the growing popularity of small houses, shotgun houses have become hot properties in the broader real estate market. Quite a few survive in varying states of repair throughout Brunswick’s historic African-American neighborhood and instead of being seen as blight should be an opportunity for affordable historic housing. They were likely built from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Central Hallway House, 1890, Brunswick

Colored Memorial School, 1923, Brunswick

In 1870, the Freedmen’s School was established as the first public school for African-Americans in Brunswick. Colored Memorial High School, designed by Cloister architect Francis L. Abreu, was built adjacent to the Freedmen’s School in 1923* and named to honor African-American veterans of World War I. The Freedmen’s School was replaced by Risley High School in 1936 and served the community until 1955 when a new Risley High School was built elsewhere. It was named Risley School, for Captain Douglas Gilbert Risley, who advocated for the school as the head of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

*- The 1922 date on the building is the date the cornerstone was laid by Dr. H. R. Butler.

National Register of Historic Places

Ahmaud Arbery Mural, Brunswick

Today, Ahmaud Arbery should be celebrating his 27th birthday with his family and loved ones, but on 3 February 2020, while jogging in a “white” neighborhood, he became yet another needless victim of racial violence. Unarmed, he was killed in cold blood by a retired law enforcement officer who apparently took offense to the mere presence of an athletic young black man in his neighborhood. This man presumed that Arbery’s race made him a suspect in a spate of recent robberies and acted as judge, jury, and executioner. To make matters worse, the local district attorney didn’t even think Arbery’s death met the definition of murder and charges weren’t brought against the perpetrators until it became a national news story. At this writing, the killer’s son and another man have also been charged not only with murder, but with hate crimes. As a white man, I am disgusted by the racists who committed the crime and the legal system’s abject but unsurprising failure.

The whole affair makes me angry but it’s nice to see this mural in the heart of Brunswick’s African-American community, on Albany Street. It was painted by Brunswick-born Miami artist Marvin Weeks and aims to educate and bring together all who deplore this inexcusable crime. The structure on which it is painted will soon become an African-American cultural center.

Winged-Gable Cottage, Circa 1935, Crescent

LaRoche House Demolished in Crescent

During the first week of April 2020, the LaRoche House, one of the most iconic 19th-century houses in McIntosh County, was razed.

I’ve been photographing the house for nearly a decade. These images were made in the months leading up to its demise.

It has been difficult to track down the early history of the house, but whatever it may be this is a significant architectural and historical loss for McIntosh County.

Wayfair Primitive Baptist Church, Cox

Wayfair Primitive Baptist Church is the only representative congregation of the Alabaha Association Crawfordites in McIntosh County. It was established in 1873 but little else is known about it. It is no longer active but the cemetery is still used for burials.

Like all of the Crawfordite meeting houses, Wayfair is free of ornament and any modern creature comforts.

Members of this faith believed that such enhancements distracted from worship.

The carpentry skills of the members are on full display in each of these meeting houses, and Wayfair is no exception.

These photographs were made in 2012; they were originally posted on Vanishing South Georgia.

 

Folk Victorian House, 1904, Groveland

Central Hallway House Ruins, 1894, Groveland

This house is of a form very common in late-19th-century Georgia.

Santa Statue, Freedmen’s Grove