This one-room building is on the campus of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Hancock County. It resembles many of the pre-Rosenwald schoolhouses that are extant in Georgia. It may not be a school, but it is my best guess.
Sistie Hudson, former mayor of Sparta, confirmed it was once a school, but it also served as the voting precinct for the Zion Community.
The congregation of the Culverton United Methodist Church was formed in 1881. The current church building was completed in 1911.
The church is no longer active as of 2016.
The Pendleton-Graves was built in 1820 as a plantation plain house. Purchased in 1853, Edmund Pendleton expanded it to share with his large family. It was then purchased by R. A. Graves in 1880 and had it transformed into the Queen Anne Victorian that you see today.
The home was abandoned and then purchased by Nancy Stephens in 1889. She attempted to restore the house. In 1993, she sold her home. It’s since changed owners several times, with the home staying empty.
The Bank of Sparta is located on the main thoroughfare of Broad Street in Sparta, Georgia. Despite applying for a charter fifteen years prior, the Bank of Sparta was approved to open as a bank in February 1904.
The bank was only for a few years. By April 1921, it was closed by state bank regulators when it was determined that the bank leaders were mishandling bank deposits. John D. Walker first served as the First National Bank of Sparta president. He then came to serve as the president of the Bank of Sparta. By 1921, he escaped to Texas to avoid prosecution for mishandling and the embezzling of bank funds. Depositors lost all of their money.
An interesting part of the sidewalk in front of the building is that there are still some vault lights. Vault lights were created to provide lighting in basements. The surface area is flat, but many of the vault lights would be angled to guide light into other basement areas.
While most of the glass appears clear, the glass can take on a purple hue. This (dis)coloration is caused by manganese dioxide, which will begin to change colors in response to sunlight. Silica was the main ingredient of the vault lights. Manganese dioxide was added to refine and set it.
So the next time you are walking in a historic downtown area, look down to see if you can locate any vault lights.
The Log Cabin Community, also known as Springfield, did not have a store until the 1930s. The store was run as a community cooperative. It was also a community gathering spot. To the right of the store, once stood a cafeteria that fed schoolchildren who attended the school across the street. While built before the Rosenwald era, the school applied for and received additional funding from the Rosenwald Fund to improve upon and expand the school.
It is a contributing property to the Camilla-Zack Community Center Historic District.
Dr. Benjamin Hubert founded the Camilla-Zach Country Life Center in 1933. Hubert was the son of Camilla and Zacharias Hubert, the first Black landowners in Hancock County, Georgia. Dr. Hubert was president of the Georgia State College for Colored Youth, now known as Savannah State University.
Before he became president, Hubert became involved in the Country Life Movement, which was focused on making rural life attractive as more families relocated to urban areas. After he became president, he established the Association for the Advancement of Negro Country Life. With the backing of Northern donors, he worked to transform Springfield into an exemplary Black community.
Hubert purchased several hundred acres of farmland in the Springfield Community. He opened the Camilla-Zach Country Life Center to host educational seminars on farming practices. It became a hub for community activities.
It is a contributing property to the Camilla-Zach Community Center District.
*Zacharias Hubert’s name is often shortened to Zack or Zach. There seems to be no consistent spelling of his nickname.
