building – Building a better South

At one of the main intersections in Montrose, Ga., sits this abandoned brick shell of a building that is across the street from the Montrose Baptist Church along U.S. Highway 80.

The building had few clues as to its past use, but it may have been part of an agricultural business, such as a farm supply store.

Montrose, located in rural Laurens County in central Georgia, is home to 154 people and a relatively low poverty rate of 11.2 percent, although 30 percent of its children live in poverty. Some 23.6 percent of residents of Laurens County (population 48,434) live in poverty, according to Census data

The South is filled with alleyways like this one from rural Bamberg, S.C. The two-story building at left with vines crawling up the side is the back of the town’s old city hall, now empty and vacant on the main drag, U.S. Highway 301. In the middle, you can see how owners of a furniture store made boarded-up back windows more attractive by portraying various colored Palmetto trees, the state symbol.

As mentioned in an earlier post, just over 30 percent of the 15,987 people in Bamberg County in 2010 lived below the poverty level, according to the U.S. Census. The majority of residents are black (61.5 percent) with whites comprising 36.1 percent. Some 1.6 percent of residents are Latino while 0.4 percent are of Asian descent.

Photo taken May 6, 2013, by Andy Brack, president of the Center for a Better South

QuickFacts about Bamberg County from the U.S. Census.

Tag: building

Brick shell, Montrose, Ga.

Old city hall, Bamberg, S.C.