–BEN HILL COUNTY GA– « Vanishing South Georgia Photographs by Brian Brown

Archive for –BEN HILL COUNTY GA–

Atlantic Coast Line Caboose, Fitzgerald

Posted in --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Fitzgerald GA with tags --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Copyright Brian Brown, Fitzgerald GA, {Signs}, {South Georgia Depots & Railroadiana} on September 15, 2011 by Brian Brown

Known as an M-5 Cupola, this caboose originated in 1942 as a Pullman Standard boxcar and was converted for use as a caboose in 1966 in Waycross. It was retired from regular service as an SCL/LN Caboose in 1980. The restoration was the Eagle Scout project of Joseph Keys, Jr., of Pittsburg, Kansas; it is authentic in details down to the stencil work, identification numbers and paint scheme. The M-5s were the only metal cabooses ever used by ACL before its merger with Seaboard; they were wooden throughout the bulk of the fabled railroad’s history. Cabooses like this were among the earliest my father worked at the beginning of his career as a conductor, and he shared many memories of them when we visited this relic in Fitzgerald recently.

http://www.watcocompanies.com/news/the_dispatch/Volume_12/March_Dispatch.pdf

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Atlantic Coast Line Caboose, Fitzgerald

Rear Interior

Atlantic Coast Line Caboose, Fitzgerald

Forward Interior

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Cinderblock Building With Religious Mural, Fitzgerald

Posted in --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Fitzgerald GA with tags --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Copyright Brian Brown, Fitzgerald GA, {South Georgia Folk Art}, {South Georgia Murals} on August 6, 2011 by Brian Brown

God + Son

Out of Sight – Out of Mind

Shotgun House, Fitzgerald

Posted in --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Fitzgerald GA with tags --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Copyright Brian Brown, Fitzgerald GA, {Shotgun Houses}, {South Georgia Architecture}, {South Georgia Houses} on August 6, 2011 by Brian Brown

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Pine Level Methodist Church, Circa 1955

Posted in --BEN HILL COUNTY GA-- with tags --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Collection of Brian Brown, Copyright Brian Brown, {South Georgia Churches}, {South Georgia Folklife} on July 13, 2011 by Brian Brown

Here’s one from the archives! I recently acquired this image of my father’s church, as it looked in the mid-1950s. What I’m most amazed by is all the ladies in their hats. Pine Level was constituted in 1889, and though it’s been bricked in, it’s still in its same location. The lady third from left, facing left, with the black hat and shawl, is my great-grandmother, Mattie Leila Doggett Brown (1876 – 1977), who lived to be nearly 101.

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House with Pepsi Sign, Fitzgerald

Posted in --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Fitzgerald GA with tags --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Copyright Brian Brown, Fitzgerald GA, {Signs}, {South Georgia Architecture}, {South Georgia Houses} on July 12, 2011 by Brian Brown

B. Mobley, Ocmulgee Riverboat Captain

Posted in --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Mobley Bluff GA with tags --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Copyright Brian Brown, Mobley Bluff GA, {Altamaha River}, {Ocmulgee River}, {South Georgia Cemeteries}, {South Georgia Pioneers} on May 20, 2011 by Brian Brown

This is the Mobley Cemetery, burial place of Captain B. Mobley and his family. Because the gravesite has always been marked with a Confederate flag (see next post), I always assumed that Captain Mobley had been involved in the Civil War. But upon further study, and a hypothesis about his birthdate, I realized this could not be the case. I began to suspect that since this area along the Ocmulgee River, at the Ben Hill County Public Boat Landing, was known as Mobley Bluff, that perhaps Captain was in reference to his work on steamboats. After consulting Carlton E. Morrison’s invaluable history, Running the River: Poleboats, Steamboats & Timber Rafts On the Altamaha, Ocmulgee, Oconee & Ohoopee, I learned that Captain Mobley had indeed piloted a passenger steamboat known as The Cumberland for W. A. Willcox. The Cumberland made regular runs between Hawkinsville and Darien in the 1880s and 1890s. I would welcome any further history on the subject…

For those interested in the history of river life in South Georgia during the latter half of the 19th century, Carlton Morrison’s Running the River is a treasure trove. Though it’s presently out of print, Salt Marsh Press is planning on reprinting it in an expanded edition. Contact them if you’d like to know more.

http://www.saltmarshpress.com/index.html

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B. Mobley, Ocmulgee Riverboat Captain

Posted in --BEN HILL COUNTY GA-- with tags --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Copyright Brian Brown, Mobley Bluff GA, {Altamaha River}, {Ocmulgee River}, {South Georgia Cemeteries}, {South Georgia Pioneers} on May 20, 2011 by Brian Brown

16 October 1850 – 27 November 1925

Though he perhaps mustered into service at the very end of the Civil War, Captain Mobley was a riverboat captain, and not a Confederate officer as I had always thought. I have been unable to locate him in any regimental histories, however.

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Grand Theatre, 1935, Fitzgerald

Posted in --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Fitzgerald GA with tags --BEN HILL COUNTY GA--, Copyright Brian Brown, Fitzgerald GA, {South Georgia Architecture}, {South Georgia Art Deco}, {South Georgia Landmarks}, {South Georgia Theatres & Auditoriums} on May 16, 2011 by Brian Brown

One of the most beautifully renovated movie palaces in South Georgia, the Grand is an anchor for Fitzgerald’s downtown historic district. I remember seeing movies here as a boy, and the seats were ragged, the paint was terrible, and the place had a horrible ambiance. The restoration is one of the best things Fitzgerald has done.

The Grand recently acquired a 1926 Barton Theatre Organ, one of only a few still in use; the Barton was often used for the “soundtrack” to silent films in early American movie houses, and it is a great honor for a town the size of Fitzgerald to have such an instrument.

http://www.foxtheatreinstitute.org/news/atlanta-magazine-staging-revivals/

http://www.foxtheatreinstitute.org/tap/participants/grand-theatre-fitzgerald/

http://fitzgeraldga.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=184

Note on the date: I’ve looked at three different sources regarding the date of construction for the Grand Theatre, and they variously put it at 1933, 1935, and 1936.

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Copyright Brian Brown and Vanishing Media 2008-2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may by used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brian Brown and Vanishing South Georgia with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Recent and forthcoming commercial and editorial credits include W. W. Norton; CBS; Brown's Guide to Georgia; Cheapflights (UK); South Georgia College; Thomasville Landmarks; Tifton Scene Magazine; The Ottawa Citizen; South x Southeast; Golden Isles Magazine; D'Avanzo Green Acres; Imaginative Journeys History Workshops; Flycatcher: A Journal of Native Imagination; Fellowship Memphis; Red Booth Review, Golden Isles Arts & Humanities Association; Subliminal Interiors; Dancing Moon Press; Georgia Backroads Magazine; Tulane Review; The Bainbridge Post-Searchlight; Bryan County (GA) Government; Red Line Blues; Daily Yonder; Clementine; and GALILEO-The University System of Georgia.

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Vanishing South Georgia exists primarily to bring attention to the myriad forms of vernacular architecture once common throughout the region. Many of these structures were built during the sharecropping and tenant farming eras, and as a result have long ago been abandoned.

A dual purpose is to bring attention to the countless forgotten villages and towns which have all but disappeared with the passing of the railroads and agricultural dominance. In Vanishing South Georgia, I hope to give them a permanent photographic presence for future generations, whether their interests be trivial, genealogical, or historical.

Vanishing South Georgia Photographs by Brian Brown

Archive for –BEN HILL COUNTY GA–

Atlantic Coast Line Caboose, Fitzgerald

Atlantic Coast Line Caboose, Fitzgerald

Atlantic Coast Line Caboose, Fitzgerald

Cinderblock Building With Religious Mural, Fitzgerald

Shotgun House, Fitzgerald

Pine Level Methodist Church, Circa 1955

House with Pepsi Sign, Fitzgerald

B. Mobley, Ocmulgee Riverboat Captain

B. Mobley, Ocmulgee Riverboat Captain

Grand Theatre, 1935, Fitzgerald

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