VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown sent along this photo of an old tenant house near Dublin, Ga., in Laurens County.
Dublin suffered during the recent recession as the unemployment rate for Laurens County, where Dublin (population 16,201) is the county seat, rose to 13.8 percent in July 2011. Two years later it was about two points lower, but was down to 9.4 percent in December 2013, according to federal government data found at this site.
Some 23.6 percent of residents of Laurens County (population 48,434) live in poverty, according to Census data
The peeling paint on the doors of this building on Madison Street in Dublin, Ga., illustrates the tough time that parts of the Laurens County community are having. Nearby in one direction is the tallest building in town, an old bank now empty. A few doors away on the other side, a pool hall is for sale.
Dublin suffered during the recent recession as the unemployment rate for Laurens County, where Dublin (population 16,201) is the county seat, rose to 13.8 percent in July 2011. Two years later it was about two points lower, but was down to 9.4 percent in December 2013, according to federal government data found at this site.
Some 23.6 percent of residents of Laurens County (population 48,434) live in poverty, according to Census data
Just down the street from the tallest building in Dublin, Ga. — the closed old First National Bank — sits this empty pool hall on Madison Street. It is sandwiched between two other buildings that look like they’ve been closed for a long time.
Dublin suffered during the recent recession as the unemployment rate for Laurens County, where Dublin (population 16,201) is the county seat, rose to 13.8 percent in July 2011. Two years later it was about two points lower, but was down to 9.4 percent in December 2013, according to federal government data found at this site.
Some 23.6 percent of residents of Laurens County (population 48,434) live in poverty, according to Census data
This fried chicken outlet on Telfair Street in Dublin, Ga., is one of many buildings that closed during the recession. The unemployment rate for Laurens County, where Dublin (population 16,201) is the county seat, rose to 13.8 percent in July 2011. Two years later it was about two points lower, but was down to 9.4 percent in December 2013, according to federal government data found at this site.
Some 23.6 percent of residents of Laurens County (population 48,434) live in poverty, according to Census data
Look closely at the top of the six-story brick building on South Jefferson Street in Dublin, Ga., and you can barely make out the words “Citizens and Southern Bank.”
The now-empty building, built around 1910 (“MCMX”), has boards on some windows; others are open without glass. The bank, apparently the tallest building between Macon and Savannah, started out as the First National Bank, according to the letters carved over the front door. By the time the bank was built, Dublin had emerged from obscurity after the Civil War into one of the largest cities in Georgia, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Other interesting facts about Dublin:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his first public speech at the First African Baptist Church in Dublin when he was 14. You can seek King celebrated in the right side of the picture as part of the town’s Black History Month observation.
Baseball manager Earl Weaver, who ended up in the Hall of Fame, once was a player-manager for the Dublin Orioles, a Class D minor league team in the city.
During World War II, Dublin was home to a prisoner-of-war camp of captured Germans and Italians.
Dublin (population 16,201) is the county seat for Laurens County. Some 23.6 percent of residents of Laurens County (population 48,434) live in poverty.
