The old Paradise Restaurant, which apparently suffered a fire in recent years, is closed, as is the gas station at right. Both are adjacent to a spooky old motel featured on Halloween in this post.
The complex is in Cooperville at the intersection of U.S. Highway 301 and Georgia Highway 17 in Screven County, Ga., which got started after the Revolutionary War and soon became part of the Black Belt of Georgia where cotton became an important staple crop tended by enslaved African Americans.
The county’s population jumped from 3,019 in 1800 to 8,274 by 1860, according to Census figures. While it had 14,593 people in 2010, the county lost an estimated 391 people — 2.7 percent — by 2012, according to the U.S. Census. In 2010, Some 25.4 percent of county residents lived below the federal poverty level, 9 points higher than the state average.
Photo taken Sept. 23, 2013, by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.