More "Lost" Rock City Barns and the Meaning of Photography

 Rock City Barn RCB-GA-38: U.S. 27 at Rock Spring, Walker County, GA.

For years I passed by this little barn on U.S. Highway 27, just south of Rock Spring. It had lived a long and varied life and was now fading into oblivion. Most recently, it had borne a sign for Sterchi Furniture; now, even that was mostly gone.

It had long ago vanished from Rock City's records, but once upon a time, before the days of interstates, when U.S. 27 was a major north/south thoroughfare from the midwest to Florida, it was one of several barns between LaFayette and Chattanooga that proudly carried the bold SEE ROCK CITY message.

Rock City Barn RCB-GA-26: U.S. 19, Taylor County, GA. 2.8 miles south of Butler.

Photography is about light. In fact, the word "photograph" comes from two Greek words: photos, which means "light," and grapho, which means "to write." So "to photograph" really means to write with light.

The best light for photography usually comes in early morning and late afternoon when the sun is low, casting long shadows which reveal texture and bathe the land in a rich, golden glow. In summer this often meant 18-hour days, as I tried to capture the good light at both ends of the day. I might drive several hundred miles checking out barn sites and then double back to photograph an especially good one in evening light; or put up at a nearby motel if I thought morning light would be better.

 Of course, there wasn't always a motel nearby. I drove 40 miles through the pre-dawn darkness of central Georgia to catch a June sunrise at this little barn which had been lost from Rock City's records. I learned about it from the neighbor who worked on my car.

Both these photos were made with Canon EOS A2 film cameras and Fujichrome 100 film, and probably with the Canon EF 28-105mm lens

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 1994-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     film photography     Canon EOS A2 film camera     Canon 28-105mm EF lens     Rock City barns   travel photography      Georgia     U.S. Highway 27     Fujichrome 100 film

The Houston McIntosh Sugar Mill Ruins.

 The Ruins were thought by locals to be an old Spanish mission.

One of the most interesting and unusual thing (to me, at least) in the St Mary's area is the old Houston McIntosh Sugar Mill ruin, known locally as the Tabby Sugar Works 

After the War of 1812, during which John Houston McIntosh led an unsuccessful effort to annex East Florida to the United States, he settled in Camden County, Georgia, acquired two plantations, and began growing rice and sugar cane.

One of the plantations, which he named New Canaan, was located near St. Mary's, and it was there that he built, around 1825, a large, two-story mill with thick walls of tabby, to process the cane into sugar. It was believed at the time that thick walls were necessary to maintain the heat needed for production of superior sugar. The mill which squeezed the sweet juice out of the cane was a new design, purchased from the West Point Foundry in New York, and was powered by yoked cattle. 

A wall of Tabby. You could get hurt on this stuff.

Tabby is a durable mixture of oyster shells, lime, sand, and water—ingredients abundantly available on the southeastern coast and used for a great many structures in colonial times and later.

The mill was in use at least through the Civil War, during which it was also used to produce large quantities of arrowroot starch. As time passed, the history of the mill was forgotten and local residents thought the ruins were an old Spanish mission, because they seemed to be too large to have been used for any agricultural purpose.

The interior chambers of the Tabby Sugar Works.

To get to the mill from St. Mary's, take GA 40 Spur/Charlie Smith Sr. Parkway. to the entrance to the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. The mill, known locally as the Tabby Sugar Works, is on the left across from the base, set back about a hundred yards from the road in a publicly accessible park open all day, every day with no admission charge. 

This post was adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia. 

All photos of the Houston McIntosh Sugar Mill ruins were made with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera and a Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2016-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography      travel photography    Tabby     Panasonic Lumix Vario G 14-140mm lens         St. Mary's, Georgia     antebellum buildings in Georgia     Olympus E-M5 digital camera    John Houston McIntosh    Georgia coastal history

The Backroads Traveler: St. Mary's, Georgia

First Presbyterian Church, St. Mary's.

One of the prettiest and most historic little towns in Georgia is St. Mary's, in the extreme southeast corner of the state. It is also the oldest. Although it was officially founded in 1787, it had originally been settled by the Spanish in 1566—just one year after the founding of St. Augustine, Florida. That would make St. Mary's the second oldest continuously inhabited city in these United States. 

 A picture-perfect piece of architecture dating from 1808, the St. Mary's church is one of the oldest Presbyterian church buildings in Georgia. The church was non-denominational until a young Presbyterian missionary named Horace Pratt came from New Jersey to St. Mary's in 1821. Through his influence, the church was incorporated as the First Presbyterian Church of St. Mary's in 1828 and remains in active service to this day.

Orange Hall is now a house museum.

Across the street from the church is Orange Hall. Built circa 1830 in the Doric temple style of Greek Revival architecture, some consider it to be the first, and certainly one the finest, examples of the style in the antebellum South. It was built for Rev. Pratt by his wife's family and named for the orange trees that grew around it. Orange Hall is now a house museum open for tours

The General John Floyd House.

Also built in 1830 is the General John Floyd House. A Brigadier General in the Georgia Militia, he served in the War of 1812 and in the Creek Indian Wars of 1813-1815. He later served in the Georgia House of Representatives. 

The Archibald Clarke House, 1801/02.

Probably the oldest surviving house in St. Mary's. Legend has it that Aaron Burr was given refuge here by General Archibald Clarke in 1804 as he was fleeing to avoid arrest after killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel. The house has been extensively renovated by its current owner.

The Stotesbury Johnson House is now a private home.

One of the most charming old buildings in St. Mary's is the Stotesbury-Johnson House, at the corner of Osborne and Bryant Streets. Built in 1821, it was until recently the Blue Goose Wine and Coffee Shoppe.

There are many, many things to see and do in the St. Mary's area. Pick up a walking tour brochure at the Welcome Center and see for yourself. Also, the St. Mary's Riverfront is a very interesting place and is the departure point for the ferry to the Cumberland Island National Seashore.

And while you are in the area, stop at St. Mary's Seafood & More at 1837 Osborne Road/GA 40 and enjoy some great shrimp. I recommend it highly

This post was adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia. 

About the photos: The Presbyterian church, Orange Hall, the General John Floyd House, and the Archibald Clarke House were photographed with a Canon EOS 6D digital camera and the Canon 28-105mm EF lens. For the Stotesbury-Johnson House, I used an Olympus E-M5 digital camera fitted with the Panasonic Lumix Vario-G 14-140mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2016-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography     Canon EOS 6D digital camera     Canon 28-105mm EF lens     Panasonic Lumix Vario G 14-140mm lens   travel photography      St. Mary's, Georgia     antebellum buildings in Georgia     Olympus E-M5 digital camera

Where Has Life Gone?

 Louise and David playing Scrabble. Miami, 1969/70. 

Where, indeed has life gone? When I made this photo Louise was about 24; I was in my early 30s. We had been married for four years. How little we could have guessed what the future would hold. Now Louise has just turned 80, I'll be 88 in May, and in August we will have been married for 60 years. It has all gone by so quickly. What a journey it has been! Our lives have been difficult sometimes, but always intensely interesting.

We have been blessed with a mutual love of travel. My work as a documentary photographer has taken me to 28 countries on four continents and around much of the United States. Louise accompanied me to 14 of those countries. She has been to five countries on her own, some of them on medical missions. Our personal travels have taken us to another six countries, plus Hawaii and Alaska.  

Louise has been plagued by back problems and has had several surgeries, but she had a great 37-year career as a nurse and Nurse Practitioner and always been good to go and ready for 'most anything. 

Our children were grown and gone from home by the time I was 50 and Louise in her early 40s. She had always wanted to live on a farm, and she said that now was the time! So we found 30 acres in northwest Georgia's beautiful and remote McLemore Cove and began our life there in a 12 by 40-foot, second-hand, mobile home. Over the next 33 years we raised beef cattle, built a barn, then a home, which was always lively with our growing family of grandchildren at holidays.

After selling the farm, we lived in a fifth-wheel trailer for two years, traveling to eight states. We miss life in our trailer.

Now, advancing age has us in a nice townhome community, where life is pleasant, but uneventful. We greatly miss the lives we have lived, the travel, and our farm.

And that's where life has gone. God has been good to us.

The photo was made with a Yashica 124 twin-lens reflex and a flash, mounted on a tripod and fired by the self-timer.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2016-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     film photography     Yashica 124 camera     life    travel      McLemore Cove   

The Backroads Traveler: Madison, Georgia

Heritage Hall is the headquarters of the Morgan County Historical Society. A sophisticated example of Greek Revival architecture built in 1811 by Dr. Elijah Jones, it is authentically decorated and open for tours.

Madison was one of the few towns in east central Georgia that was not destroyed by General Sherman in his 1864 "March to the Sea" that broke the back of the Confederacy. It was spared because it was the home of pro-Union Georgia Senator Joshua Hill. Because of that act of mercy, Madison contains one of the largest collections of antebellum structures in the South.

The Morgan County Courthouse was built in 1905 in the Beaux Arts style and sits in an unusual location just off one corner of the town square.

Madison has been called "one of the ten most beautiful towns in the Southern states" by The Culture Trip, and even "one of the sixteen most beautiful towns in the world" by Budget Travel Magazine. Travel Holiday Magazine named it the "#1 small town in America." Those praises are nothing new. Madison was described more than 170 years ago in the 1845 Guide to Georgia as the "most cultured and aristocratic town on the stagecoach route from Charlestown to New Orleans."

So with those accolades to whet your appetite, pick up a self-guided tour brochure at the Historic Madison Welcome Center on the town square and go for a walkabout.

Although Madison's population is only about 4,500, the town seems larger. Incorporated in 1809 and named after President James Madison, the historic district is one of the largest in Georgia, with nearly a hundred antebellum (pre-Civil War) homes. As you might image, tourism is the city's main industry.  

However, Madison is small enough to be an easy place to navigate on foot, and with enough interesting things to see to make it worth your while. Here are some buildings I liked.

The Rogers House was built on one of the original town lots.

Just down the street from the courthouse is the Plantation Plain-style Rogers House, at 179 East Jefferson. Built around 1810, it is one of the oldest houses in Madison. It is open daily for tours. Next door is Rose Cottage, the home of former slave Adeline Rose. 

 

The First Baptist Church was erected in 1858, using bricks made by slaves on the plantation of John Byrne Walker. It looks surprisingly modern, even today. 

 

 

Just down the block is the Presbyterian Church, built in 1842. The design is Old English, with Tiffany stained glass windows. In 1866, Ellen Axson, the pastor's daughter, married Woodrow Wilson, who would later become the 28th president of the United States. 

The Episcopal Church of the Advent was built by Methodists.

The Gothic Revival Church of the Advent at 338 Academy Street was built circa 1842 by a Methodist congregation, but was sold to the Episcopalians in 1960. The original slave gallery has been converted to an organ loft. 

The Stagecoach House is a residence these days.

The Stagecoach House, at 549 Old Post Road, was built circa 1810, at about the same time as the Rogers House. It was an inn and stagecoach stop when the Old Post Road was part of the route between Charleston and New Orleans.

About the photos: All photos in this post were made with a Canon 6D digital camera and the Canon 28-105mm EF lens or the EF 17-35mm f2.8L.

This post was adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.

Blog Note: Posting has been a bit erratic this week. Sorry. Sometimes, as I say, life does get in the way.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2016-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography     Canon EOS 6D digital camera     Canon 28-105mm EF lens     Canon EF 17-35mm f2.8L lens   travel photography      Madison, Georgia     antebellum buildings in Georgia     Sherman's march to the sea     historic Madison, Georgia   

The Backroads Traveler: A Day Among the Azeleas

Azaleas at Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia.

One spring day in the late '90s, Louise and I journeyed to the little west Georgia town of Pine Mountain, where we toured the world-famous Callaway Gardens. Featuring North America's largest azalea garden, with more than 20,000 native and exotic species lining the winding trails and reflecting their beauty in the Mirror Pond and Valley Stream, it is a spring spectacle that must be seen to be believed. 

Azaleas and their reflections at Callaway Gardens.

With 13,000 acres, Callaway Gardens is so many things that it's almost impossible to summarize it in a few paragraphs. It's a resort with lakes, beaches, boating and fishing, water sports, championship golf courses, tennis courts, eight walking trails, and bicycle trails. There are nine restaurants, nine shops, an inn, cottages, and villas. It is also an event venue and a conference center, and has one of the country's largest butterfly conservatories. 

From mid-November to New Year's, visitors can drive a five-mile trail of illuminated scenery, or ride a trolley if you prefer, in Callaway Gardens' Festival of Lights, made up of eight million lights on 725 miles of light string.

 

 Me and my trusty Pentax 6x7 camera. A real workhorse.

Accompanied by Louise (there should be a special medal for photographer's wives) I spent an entire day walking the trails and photographing the azaleas.

Looking at this photo (taken by Louise) makes me nostalgic for the days when I  had hair.

My Pentax was mounted on a heavy-duty tripod and loaded with Agfa color transparency (slide) film. The Pentax was a great camera for me. Its 105mm f2.4 Takumar lens was very sharp, and to this day I believe it gave me a higher percentage of "keepers" than any other film camera I've owned. I might still be shooting one if I could afford the film and processing. (And could deal with the weight. They are heavy.)

The Pentax made ten exposures on a roll of #120 film, each transparency 6x7 centimeters in size. That's about four times the size of a 35mm slide. I don't remember how many rolls of film I shot that day, but it was quite a few. It was a great trip and a memorable experience.

Blog Note: This post is a day late. Sometimes life gets in the way. 

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 1997-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     film photography     travel photography     west Georgia    Pentax 6x7 camera    Pentax Takumar 105mm f2.4 lens    Agfa film     120 film     transparency film     Callaway Gardens     Pine Mountain, Georgia     azaleas     flower photography

Reflections on Abandoned Houses

 

 Abandoned House, Armuchee Valley, Georgia

Blog Note: I'm kinda busy this week. I bought Louise a three-wheel bike for her birthday. It arrived Monday. Unfortunately, it came in a big box with the three most frightening words in the English language:  "Some Assembly Required," which turned out to be All Assembly required! I have it mostly put together, but I'm still trying to figure out the derailleur (gear shifter). So I'm reposting a piece I especially like from 2022.

_________________________________________ 

Exploring northwest Georgia's Amurchee Valley some years ago in an area where Walker County and Chatooga Counties join, I found a house sitting empty, doors unlocked, furniture still in place, even tools still hanging on the shed wall. Some old couple had passed away, probably, or one or both had gone to a nursing home, leaving no family or anyone who cared about the property. I've found this to be unfortunately common in rural America.

A recurring theme in my photographic work is abandonment. As my artist's statement on the  left side of this blog says, "My domain is the old, the odd, and the ordinary; the beautiful, the abandoned, and the about to vanish away."

So often in my ramblings around the countryside I find things that once were full of life but now lie abandoned and desolate. Old houses, old cars, old churches, old barns, old mills: for no reason I've ever been able to understand, I'm drawn to them. 

The Frank Inman house, Martin Co., IN after Frank died and the family left.

In a way, these photographs are about life. Or more accurately, the brevity of it. Have you ever noticed that a house, no matter how ramshackle, seems to hold together as long as someone lives in it? And how quickly even a fairly substantial house can go down when it's empty? When we moved into McLemore Cove, there was an empty house just off Cove Road that had been recently occupied and appeared reasonably sound. Within a relatively few years of emptiness it had collapsed and rotted away, leaving only a weed-covered foundation.

Not to be morbid, but life is short. I can tell you from personal experience that even a long life is short. A good reminder to, as the Bible says, "set our minds on things above."

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 19722-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     brevity of life     abandonment     northwest Georgia    Indiana     Martin County, IN    old houses