Leary, Georgia is located in the Southwest Georgia county of Calhoun. The town’s population is just over 500. Next to the town center are two striking houses owned by the Jordan family. The green and red makes them pop, especially in an early morning sunny day. Tax records indicate the red house was built in 1890, and the green one is 1940.
Most people know that Martin Luther King, Jr. Was first buried in South-View Cemetery in Southwest Atlanta and then The King Center. He was entombed into four different crypts over time.
After his murder on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, the King family and the city of Atlanta quickly got ready for his funeral. On April 9th, his first crypt was used at South-view Cemetery. The crypt was created by the Roberts-Shields Memorial Company.
After King’s death, Coretta Scott King immediately envisioned and founded The King Center. Land was identified and King was relocated on January 14, 1970. A new crypt was built by the same company.
The permanent dais was built in 1976 and the third crypt was constructed. Like the others, it was built out of Georgia marble.
When Coretta Scott King passed away in 2006, the Robert-Shields Memorial Company made the final double crypt.
Credit to Liz Clappin for providing the information on the Roberts-Shields Memorial Company.
Charmaine Minniefield is an artist-activist whose mission is to save Black stories “as a radical action of social justice.” Minniefield’s “The Praise House Project” celebrates the history of praise houses and ring shouts. It is a multimedia experience. When the Praise House Project is open, the inside of the house is an in-depth visual and sound experience.
Initially built on plantations, praise houses, or pray’s houses, were small one-room structures where enslaved people would gather to worship. Praise houses used to be found all along the coast, but only a few remain.
Ring shouting involves moving in a circle, shuffling and stamping feet, and clapping hands while in prayer. The earliest known example of ring shouting in the United States was in the 1840s. This practice is believed to be tied back to West African traditions. Ring shouting is a ritual celebrated when a person accepts Christianity. It is still practiced today, and the evolution of the practice can still be seen in Black congregations today, especially among the surviving Gullah Geechee communities. The McIntosh County Shouters out of the Briar Patch community in Georgia keep the practice alive today. They still use a praise house today.
So far, the Praise House Project has been displayed at Oakland Cemetery, Emory University, and downtown Decatur, Georgia. The Oakland Cemetery installation was the first exhibition. It commemorated the lives of over 800 enslaved people who were buried in the cemetery. The Emory exhibition was on the grounds of the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in 2023. Currently, the Praise House is located at the corner of Trinity Place and Commerce Drive to honor and remember the historic Black community of Beacon Hill. This community was settled after the Civil War and began to be erased in the 1930s as Decatur expanded. The next exhibit will be at South-view Cemetery.
To read more about The Praise Project, please visit the website.
In Americus, Georgia, there is one extant Lustron House. There are less than 20 remaining in the state. Lustrons are prefabricated metal houses designed by Carl Strandlund. In 1946, the federal government provided $15 million in emergency loans to help build new homes for returning GIs from World War II. Strandlund purchased a factory in Columbus, OH, and later secured an additional $25 million in loans. Despite producing around 3,000 Lustrons, the federal government repossessed the company in February 1950, and Strandlund was forced to declare bankruptcy later that year.
The Coca-Cola Bottling Company was built in 1940 in Albany, Georgia. It was active until the early 2000s. In 2010, the building was donated to Sherwood Baptist Church, which now uses it as a community center.
Horace King was an accomplished builder and architect. He is known for his bridges, but he also designed other buildings.
The Albany Bridge House was built by King in 1858. King was born into slavery but was granted privileges to build around the South. Albany’s founder, Nelson Tift, hired him to build a bridge across the Flint River. The bridge was built with an adjoining bridge house to serve as the official gateway to the town where the town could collect tolls.
Over the years, the bridge house served as a smith shop and an auto parts store. It now functions as the Albany Welcome Center.
