When I first posted this image of “Doc” Clements’ drugstore nearly four years ago, the building was in bad shape, as evidenced by the boarded-up second-floor windows. But I see lots of places like this in small towns all over South Georgia, and I didn’t think much else of it until Betty Thomas sent me a message the other day telling me that it was being demolished. It seems the owner was never willing to sell the building below a certain price and in the meantime, its structural integrity was compromised. Fast forward to today, and this place, which was a center of life in the small Wilcox County community for most of the 20th century, literally began crumbling. Betty reports that bricks had fallen to the sidewalk below and the building was deemed unsafe. It was already too far gone for preservation, even though several people had offered to buy and stabilize it. I’m so glad that Betty made these photographs to document the loss of such an important place.
All images below: Courtesy Betty Thomas (May 2013)
Please do not repost these without crediting them to her.
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