The Dr. Henry B. Moorer House, also known as “The Sycamores,” was built in the 1870s in Henning, Tennessee. Reportedly, the home was the first brick home in the county. Moorer was one of the first doctors in the area and would travel the county providing medical care. According to his obituary, he was the mayor of Henning for 40 years. He served 20 two-year terms, often running unopposed.
Later his son, Emmett, called The Sycamores home.
In July 2020, the antebellum mansion once home to the Stevens family burned to the ground after a lightning strike. The Greek Revival home was built in the 1850s in what became known as Stevens Pottery, Georgia. It was likely built with enslaved labor since the 1860 Slave Census listed the family holding 13 men, women, and children in bondage.
The current home looks quite similar to the old structure but with additional wings added to each side. Below is an image from Georgia’s Natural, Archaeological, and Historic Resources GIS website.
Founded by Henry Stevens in Baldwin County, “The Pottery,” as it was once known, built up around a sawmill and pottery. After the Civil War, the saw mill and pottery was the largest industry in Baldwin County. Remnants of the old pottery can still be seen through a fence and overgrowth.
I became interested in Stevens Pottery because I told that the Stephens Grave Covers were likely made and fired here, so I decided to visit the community. It does not seem that the two families are connected.
The photographs of the Farm Service Administration – Office of War Information were produced from 1935-1944. The federal government employed photographers to document the United States. The initial focus of the photographs was to document loans made by the Resettlement Administration.
The next focus of the project was to document the sharecropper experience in the South and farm workers in the Midwest. Marion Post Wolcott was one of the photographers. She and Jack Delano documented Greene County, Georgia. One of Wolcott’s photos was of a store on a dirt road in Mosquito Crossing, Georgia. While many places documented in Greene County have been demolished or lost to history, the Mosquito Crossing store still stands today.
Built in 1854 as a brick Georgian cottage, the Gothic Revival details were added after the Civil War. Atherates and Martha Atkinson raised 14 children in this home.
Pinkney “Pink” Anderson (1900-1974) was a blues artist born in Laurens County, South Carolina. By the age of 14, he joined Dr. William Kerr of the Indian Remedy Company to entertain crowds as part of the medicine show circuit. Medicine shows often consisted of musical acts, circus sideshows, ventriloquists, and magicians who enthralled crowds while “doctors” would sell magical elixirs.
Anderson became quite known in the medicine show circuit. He recorded an album in the 1960s. Unfortunately, he had a stroke that limited his abilities in the late 1960s. Anderson passed away in 1974.
Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd was inspired to create the band’s name by combining the first names of Pink and Floyd Council, another blues musician.
Until the last few years, Pink’s home still stood in Spartanburg.
This website is two and a half years old, but I have been photographing for several years, which means I made many posts this year that are not of images I took in 2023. This post highlights the most popular images that I took (or shared) and made posts of in 2023. It is a mixture of images I have taken or posts I have created out of public domain images. Click on the header above each photo to see the full post.
The photos I took in Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida didn’t gain traction like those in Georgia and South Carolina, most likely due to the sheer volume of photos I have taken in Georgia and South Carolina, which has created a larger following. I did want to share one of my favorites from a trip to Reliance, Tennessee.
