Georgia Coast      

We have visited the “Low Country” in South Carolina and Georgia many times over the past four decades, for family reunions, vacations and, for me, photography.  This has given me the opportunity to pretty well explore “easy” spots within an hour or so of Savannah and Hilton Head.  I decided to devote this gallery to structures I found in cities and towns along the Georgia coast.  These images are sorted geographically from north (Statesboro) to south (Brunswick) along a 170-mile-long zigzag path.  Further details below.

• Vandy’s Bar-B-Q — Statesboro (2018).  Stopped at this locally-renowned place (founded in 1929) for lunch after visiting the city’s botanical garden.  The barbecue sandwich was OK, the ambience was pretty much what you would expect from the exterior photo.  I’d say they are lucky to have a captive audience.

• Ice Cream Solves Everything — Savannah (2022).  Over three decades, we have watched the Savannah river district evolve from an artsy-crafty tourist trap into a slick commercial juggernaut, especially with the 2020 restoration and repurposing of an electric power plant into the Plant Riverside District, whose tenants include  JW Marriott and District Gelato.

• Turrets and Towers — Savannah (2012).  This stately 1892 mansion, the Harden House, is in Savannah’s Victorian District at the corner of  E. Gwinnett and Lincoln Streets.  The house was restored shortly after this photo was taken and is now — of course — an AirBnB.

• Inside Fort Pulaski — Cockspur Island, Savannah River (2008).  In the winter of 1864-1865, Fort Pulaski served as a prisoner-of-war camp for captured Confederate soldiers and officers, hence the jail door seen in the image.  The 500-plus captives were overcrowded and purposely given rotten, starvation rations in retaliation for Confederate treatment of Union soldiers.  Over 40 of the prisoners detained here eventually died from dysentery, scurvy and related causes.  The Civil War was not glorious.

• Tybee Island Light Station — Tybee Island (2010).   For all you nautical history buffs, the Tybee Island lighthouse was built in the late 1700s and then, after fires and such, was rebuilt in 1867 — one year too late to save the clipper ship Carrier Dove which ran aground at Tybee in 1866 and was a total loss.  Maybe she (are ships still called she?) struck the log in the foreground of the photo and that was all she wrote.

• The House at Kadee’s Korner — Ludowici (2024).  When I saw a town named Ludowici on a Georgia map, I thought to myself, that’s interesting — is there an opera house in Ludowici?  Turns out that William Ludowici was “a German immigrant who contributed substantially to the construction of the county high school” and operated a roofing tile factory which remains a going concern (but sadly no longer in Ludowici).  While I got a decent photo of Ludowici’s water tower alongside its railroad line and police speed-trap, Kadee’s Korner proved to be the visual highlight of my visit.

• Brian’s Service Center — Jesup (2024).  Not sure whether Brian’s Service Center, servicing a population of 10,000 Jesupalians, is a going concern or a gone concern, but I liked the faded palette of the building.

• Jesup Homestead — Jesup (2024).  One of many once-functional, now boarded-up, houses in Jesup’s historic district.  Though this homestead was abandoned, many nearby houses in similar shape are still occupied.  By that I mean, real people living in sad conditions.  May I say, I don’t think it is quite jolly to drive around and take artsy photos of poor people’s homes, and so my visit to Jesup was photographically ill-considered.

• Fancy Honey — Gardi (2024).  I noticed this 1900-era gem while driving south on US 25 from Jesup to Brunswick and wisely decided that it merited a U-turn.  Turns out it’s a popular photo spot!

• Ahmaud Arbery Mural — Brunswick (2024).  Ahmaud Arbery, I hope you recall, was the black man who jogged through a suburban Brunswick neighborhood in early 2020 and was tracked down and shot dead by three white men who lived in that neighborhood.  This mural, on the north wall of the African-American Cultural Center of Brunswick, was painted later that year by Brunswick native Marvin Weeks.

• Spiritual Deliverance Prayer Tower of Faith Church — Brunswick (2024).  No telling when the spirit of the Lord or the passing of the offering plate last graced this humble site.

• Bridge to Jekyll Island — Turtle River, south of Brunswick (2024).  I was looking for the historic/abandoned Brunswick shipyard but wound up here instead, in a parking lot at the base of the second-generation Sidney Lanier Bridge.  This 2003 structure replaced a lift-bridge that had twice been struck by wayward ships (sound familiar?).

The morning I arrived here in Liberty Ship Park, there was some kind of family fishing tournament going on, apparently part of the annual “Blessing of the Fleet” festival in Brunswick.  One man snagged a turtle and reeled it up twenty-some feet onto the deck of the fishing platform for all to admire.  A woman on a PA system repeatedly encouraged contest participants to stop and get their free hot dogs.  I wish I could have stayed longer and engaged, but it was time to head back north, and I wasn’t all that hungry.