Brian Brown – Building a better South

August 28, 2015August 12, 2015

Perspective, Worth County, Ga.

This old tenant farmhouse in wiregrass country along Champion Road in rural Worth County gives a lot of perspective about the decay in infrastructure across the rural South. The photo by VanishingSouthGeorgia.com‘s Brian Brown shows a rusting sink, a rusting washing machine and a sagging green chair as a rusted tin roof threatens to topple onto the porch.

Worth County is located between Albany and Tifton in the central part of South Georgia. The county is home to Peter Pan Peanut Butter. Every jar made is produced in the county seat, Sylvester.

The county had about 21,300 people in 2013, according to the Census with whites representing 68.7 percent and blacks being 29.6 percent. Some 22 percent of people live below poverty levels, according to Census figures.

August 22, 2015August 12, 2015

Metal farm building, Jenkins County, Ga.

Farmhouse and cotton field, Jenkins County, Ga.

It won’t be long before its time to pick cotton in rural counties across the South. This photo, by VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown, shows an old corrugated metal farm building on the plantation that includes the Mathew Sheppard Brinson house (1888) in Jenkins County, Ga.

Jenkins County, whose county seat is Millen, was home to 9,213 people, according to the U.S. Census in 2012, an increase of 10 percent from two years earlier. Almost 30 percent of residents live in poverty.

August 15, 2015August 12, 2015

Liz and Tom, Stuckey, Ga.

You can barely make out the old “Myers” signage on this old store in Stuckey, Ga., in this photo by VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown. It’s a whole lot easier to see “Liz” and “Tom,” two words in paste-on letters on top of the old sign on the rural Wheeler County store.

According to 2011 poverty estimates by the U.S. Census, Wheeler County, which had 7,421 people in 2010, had a 42.2 percent poverty rate. What’s remarkable about that is it is one of the few high-poverty counties where the overall rate is higher than the rate for children under 18.

About two thirds of the residents of the south-central Georgia county are white with the remaining almost all black.

More on Wheeler County.

June 2, 2015May 30, 2015

Adabelle, Bulloch County, Ga.

Adabelle Road, Bulloch County, Ga. — On the road to Adabelle, Bulloch County, Ga.

VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown writes that this old tenant cabin is on the road to Adabelle, Ga., south from Statesboro in Bulloch County.

“I’m not sure if it was associated with the Croatan Indian community that once thrived in the area. A nearby historic marker tells the store of the Croatan community:

“In 1870 a group of Croatan Indians migrated from their homes in Robeson County North Carolina, following the turpentine industry to southeast Georgia. Eventually many of the Croatans became tenant farmers for the Adabelle Trading Company, growing cotton and tobacco. The Croatan community established the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Adabelle, as well as a school and a nearby cemetery. After the collapse of the Adabelle Trading Company, the Croatans faced both economic hardship and social injustice. As a result, most members of the community returned to North Carolina by 1920. The tribe to which these families belonged became known as the Lumbee in the early 1950s.”

April 20, 2015April 15, 2015

Tobacco barns, Tattnall County, Ga.

These tobacco barns probably date to the middle of the last century and, though not evident in this photograph, the one in the foreground is leaning badly, says VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown.

“The ‘Cracker’ style double-pen farmhouse is the real highlight of the property, though. The owners have done a great job in keeping it authentic and stabilized. See more here.

Tattnall County in eastern Georgia just south of Interstate 16, is home to about 25,000 people, some 24 percent of whom live below the federal poverty line including 33 percent of children. It’s county seat is Reidsville, known as home for one of the state’s toughest prisons.

April 17, 2015April 15, 2015

Parker Street, Brooklet, Ga.

Many of Brooklet’s historic downtown storefronts have been restored or well maintained and Parker Street continues to be the commercial heart of the town, writes VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown.

Brooklet, home to about 1,400 people, is in Bulloch County, Ga., about nine miles east of Statesboro, which is home to Georgia State University. Bulloch County, located in eastern Georgia county along Interstate 16, is deeply in poverty with 31 percent of residents living below the federal poverty line. The county, which has a median household income of $33,902, is home to 72,694 people (2012), two thirds of whom are white.

April 1, 2015

Rare store, Bulloch County, Ga.

“It’s hard to imagine a time when little stores like this one could be found scattered throughout the countryside,” writes VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown of this Bulloch County, Ga., structure. “As people became more mobile, though, the need for them vanished. To find one in this condition is rare.”

Bulloch County, located in eastern Georgia county along Interstate 16, is deeply in poverty with 31 percent of residents living below the federal poverty line. The county, which has a median household income of $33,902, is home to 72,694 people (2012), two thirds of whom are white.

March 30, 2015April 1, 2015

1940s bus, Ben Hill County, Ga.

VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown spotted this old Studebaker school bus off a dirt road in rural Ben Hill County, Ga. He notes the front end and engine of the bus were built by Studebaker, while the body may have been manufactured by Bluebird in nearby Fort Valley. “The grill style dates the bus to around 1947, but it was likely used well into the 1950s by Ben Hill County.”

Just over 9,000 people live in Fitzgerald, the county seat of rural Ben Hill County. Some 31.6 percent of people in the county live in poverty, according to Census figures. More.

February 28, 2015February 25, 2015

Dirt road, Tattnall County, Ga.

VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer offers a simple, satisfying photo of the rural South here with this orange clay-sand road through a field in Tattnall County, Ga.

“In my opinion, there’s no better way of experiencing rural South Georgia’s beautiful countryside than a ramble on a dirt road,” he writes here. We agree and have added this to our list of favorite photos published on this site.

February 26, 2015February 25, 2015

Cedar Lawn store, Bulloch County, Ga.

Old store near the Emanuel-Bulloch county line in eastern Georgia.

You used to see stores like this all over the South, but they’re slowly being taken away by time and neglect. This store has a Twin City address, which would make you think it’s in Emanuel County, but it’s not, according to VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown.

“It’s just over the Bulloch County line on U.S. 80, near Portal,” he writes here. “The community around the store is known to locals as Cedar Lawn. Residential stores like this are few and far between today. It’s always been a common practice in cities for shopkeepers to live “above the store” but was seen less frequently in rural areas.”

The store is a dozen miles northeast of Bulloch County’s seat, Statesboro, home to Georgia Southern University. Yet the eastern Georgia county along Interstate 16 is deeply in poverty with 31 percent of residents living below the federal poverty line. Bulloch County, which has a median household income of $33,902, is home to 72,694 people (2012), two thirds of whom are white.