Gay, Georgia, in Meriwether County, is located an hour South of Atlanta. The town’s population was 110 in the 2020 Census. Because of its proximity to Atlanta, it is one of the many Georgia towns benefiting from the Atlanta film industry.
This store was featured in the movie Till as the location where Emmitt Till met Carolyn Bryant at her family’s grocery store. While faded, the sign for the store can still be seen above the door.
Tax records indicate the store was built in 1965. Based on the style, it would seem this store is much older. The set designers did a remarkable job capturing the store from 1955. They even painted the CB Turner advertisement on the side of the building.
Note how much the Bryant’s and CB Turner signs are replicas of the original store.
If you have not seen the movie or read about Emmitt Till’s lynching, I highly recommend learning about this horrible story. .
2017 photo of Bryant’s Grocery in Money, Mississippi (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
As you head west on Georgia Highway 116 from Shiloh, Georgia, you will see a fantastic mural on the side of an old convenience store. I believe the mural reimagines Leonardo Davinci’s The Last Supper because the crucial figures in Black history surround a table with food and drink. Based on Google Street View, the mural was painted sometime between 2008 and 2013 by an artist the neighboring business identified as “Kenyatta.” Unfortunately, my frequent backroads photo companion, Brian Brown, and I could not sleuth out who this is or if they have additional work that we could see.
Thankfully, the artist wrote the names of most of the depictions in small letters. Despite the fading, Brian and I believe we correctly identified almost everyone. We’ve tentatively identified the two figures at the center as Muhammad and Jesus Christ. However, there are arguments for and against why each one is the one who is identified. The identifications are below. It is a mixture of educators, activists, and religious leaders. I linked to their Wikipedia bios if you want to know more about who was featured.
If you are the artist or know him, please send a message. I would love to see more of his work. Also, please let me know if anyone was misidentified or knows the store’s name. I know the store was built in 1955, but I do not know any other history.
Built in 1899, this was once a general store in Veazey, Georgia. Veazey is an unincorporated community in Greene County. A post office for the town was established in 1881 and closed in 1933.
A few years ago, it seemed that the oldest commercial building in Georgia would be another case of demolition by neglect. The Adam Strain Building was built before 1820 and survived The Burning of Darien by federal troops during the Civil War. More recently, it was vacant for many years and had started to deteriorate to the point that the Georgia Trust for Historic Places had listed it as one of the state’s Places in Peril.
In February 2020, it was announced that Marion and Milan Savic of Marietta had purchased the building with the intention of saving it. Working with the teams from Ethos Preservation and Landmark Preservation, the Savics were able to restore it. Marion shared that the preservation teams designed new techniques for the restoration. For instance, an outside wall must be pulled closer to the building. The system was designed specifically for the building’s walls.
Window details
In July 2024, it looked like the building would be open for fall as a brewery. My friends and I decided to plan a trip for October to see the restoration and try the brewery. Unfortunately, it was not ready by the time for our trip to the coast. Luckily, mutual friends were able to connect us with Marion Savic who graciously offered to give us a tour.
A mural that was found when the clean-up process began.
The two-story building will open as the Tabby House Brewing Company sometime in the fall of 2024, so when my friends and I showed up, they were in the final stages of getting ready to open. The building has two floors with an upper and lower outdoor patio. In view of the river, it will be the place to grab a pint in McIntosh County and surrounding areas.
A view of the tabby inside the building
Outside of being a scenic place to visit, architecture and history nerds will appreciate the details the Savics kept to respect the building’s history and architecture. Patrons will be able to see a close-up of the Tabby. Much of the hardwood was salvaged from the building and reused.
A historic resources survey report identifies this as a general store built in 1929. At the moment, I cannot locate more information about the building. If you can provide more information, please let me know.
Barnesville, Georgia was once known as the “Buggy Capital of the South.” One of the more prominent buggy companies was J. G. Smith’s Barnesville Buggies. Jackson Greenleaf Smith was born in Buffalo, New York and relocated to Georgia after the Civil War.
Image courtesy of The Spokesman and harness world v. 28 (1912)
Located on the town square, the store front is a contributing factor to the Barnesville Historic District. Barnesville celebrates Buggy Days every September. More information can be found here.
Advertisement courtesy of the 1910 Barnesville News-GazetteWill update where I originally found this imageImage courtesy of The Spokesman and harness world v. 28 (1912)
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