On the corner of S. Pine and E. Henry Streets in Spartanburg, South Carolina, there sits the Sugar-n-Spice Drive-In restaurant. Opened in 1961 by Pete Copses and John Stathakis, the restaurant became a local favorite known for its souvlaki.
The restaurant began with drive-in and counter service. In the 1970s, a renovation added a sit-down restaurant and removed the drive-in option.
The restaurant is still very popular. Over the years, as I have grown to appreciate mid-century architecture, it took me many tries on visits to my hometownto catch the parking lot empty with good light.
I took this photo almost 20 years ago. I still love old school neon.
If you’ve driven Cobb Parkway through Marietta, Georgia, you’ve likely spotted it a 56-foot-tall steel rooster with rolling eyes and a moving beak, high atop a KFC. The much loved icon was built in 1963, originally part of a restaurant called Johnny Reb’s Chick, Chuck and Shake. Hubert Puckett, a 1957 graduate of the Georgia Tech School of Architecture, designed the chicken after a company salesman sold the idea of a giant chicken to owner S.R. “Tubby” Davis. Puckett was working for Dixie Steel, a subsidiary of Atlantic Steel, who then constructured the giant metal bird.
Turn left at the Big Chicken!
In 1966, Davis sold the restaurant to his brother, who later turned it into a KFC franchise. Despite initial resistance from Colonel Sanders himself, the Big Chicken stayed because it of its iconic status. It supposedly was also the busiest KFC in the world.
In 1993, a severe storm damaged the Big Chicken. KFC considered tearing it down, but public outcry led to its full restoration. Pilots voiced their support to save it because they used it as a navigational marker when flying into Atlanta. The rebuilt version kept the moving beak and eyes but eliminated the original’s intense vibrations, which shattered windows.
Sasser, Georgia, has an approximate population of 250. It is situated along the Columbus Southern railway and had a population of 412 in 1930. The downtown area boasts a traditional main street thoroughfare seen in so many small towns. One building was once painted with an advertisement for Coca-Cola, and the other is Ballard’s Obelisk Flour, a Kentucky flour company that ceased operation in 1951. Their ghost signs persist today.
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.
Thank you for joining me in my travels around the South. It’s been a great year of wandering backroads and a few main ones. If I learned anything, it is that people love abandoned houses, buildings with unexpected histories, and (in)famous graves.
The Baber Rhyne Drug Store, located next to the train depot on Magnolia Street, was incorporated in 1918. The original owners were Grover Baber and J. W. Rhyne. They eventually turned ownership to Wendell Burnett. Based on advertisements, it was the only drug store in town open 24 hours a day. The location was convenient for travelers and rail staff. The drugstore eventually closed. Different restaurants have called this location home over the years.
On a side note, while researching the history of the building, I found an article about a William Walker pleading guilty to taking over 14,000 narcotic pain tablets from the drug store. He was a former clerk there. It made me wonder what the black market value of narcotics was back in the 1950s.
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