Originally Tate High School, the Tate Elementary School building was constructed from locally quarried Georgia marble. The school was built in the early 1930s after the wooden structure burned to the ground in 1927. The current building is still standing. The footprint of the campus has expanded, but it is essentially unchanged.
I stumbled across an article about Black history in Pickens County. One part of the series covered the churches in Pickens County.
On top of this hill in Tate, Georgia is the Tate CME or AME Church (from the article no one is certain which it was). Located in Smokey Hollow, called that because the smoke would settle over the hollow (or holler) in the winter, this church was built in 1887 at the same time as the Tate Methodist Church with the help of Stephen Tate.
It was in use until the 1950s then it stayed vacant until the 70s when Miracle Friendship Holiness Church reopened it. As of 2015, when the article was written, there were only five members left, and was already in disrepair.
The road up the hill was covered in vines and weeds. I was unwilling to try to drive up the road. I hope to revisit it the winter and see if it seems more driveable.
The Tate Cemetery serves as the family cemetery for the Tate and Griffith families. It is a very elaborate family cemetery, which is not a surprise. This is the cemetery for the family of the Tate Marble Company.
