Long's Chapel, c.1871, Rockingham County, VA

Photographer facing SE, 1999-2000

Located NE of Harrisonburg, VA, between the Valley Pike (U.S. Route 11) and the Massanutten Mountain Range, lies the site that was originally named Athens, but later changed to Zenda.

In 1869, four years after the end of the Civil War, newly freed slaves in Rockingham County were provided the opportunity to purchase land and begin building a community of their own. A couple by the names of William and Hannah Carpenter donated a sizable  portion of their land to the United Brethren in Christ for this purpose.

Long's Chapel was built the following year by Jacob Long, who was believed to have paid for the construction, thus the name.

Photographer facing south, 1999-2000

Slowly the community grew, and the Chapel served not only as a place of worship, but also as a school. The community also had a post office. By 1900, the community consisted of 17 homes and 80 residents.

The residents primarily worked as farm laborers, but the ability to own land gave them the opportunity to grow, financially.

Eventually a separate school was built in 1882, which the Rockingham County School District described as having seating for 28 students.

Photographer facing SE, 1999-2000

Over time, the community lost its steam, and by 1940 there was only one remaining African American family living in the community. Economic hardship, and manufacturing jobs lured people to large cities.

Long's Chapel, its cemetery, and the Wilson Family homestead ( the last remaining family) are all that remains of the community. At the time I took these photos, the building was in serious danger of being lost forever.

In 2004, a couple on vacation from South Carolina came upon the building, recognized its historical significance, and the rest is truly history. Read about it here, and also here.

The Chapel has since been fully restored, and in 2006 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. An often too rare success story in historic preservation.

Photographer facing SW, 1999-2000

Whitehall Village House, c.1935, Clarke County, GA

Whitehall Road, photographer facing north

This old home is located just east of the bridge on Whitehall Road, that spans the Oconee River, and across from the main entrance to the Whitehall Mill Lofts complex. Though wearing a fresh looking coat of white paint, all of the doors and windows in the home have been boarded. Overall, the house seems to be maintained very well in spite of the obvious lack of residents.

A quick search of the tax records revealed that the property was sold in 1999 to the State of Georgia, along with a few other adjoining properties that all have access to the Oconee River. It appears that the properties have been secured as part of an effort to lock up river front property for the future expansion of the Greenway. Though this two-acre property doesn't have river frontage, it was sold along with an adjacent thirty-one acre property by the same group to the state.

Current Whitehall Mill Lofts

As mentioned above, across the road is the entrance to the Whitehall Mill complex, formally known as the Athens Manufacturing Company. The original mill and mill race was constructed in 1830, and replaced in 1854 by a turbine mill. The turbine mill burned in 1892 and was rebuilt in 1893 with the mill that still stands, and was in operation until 1988.  The mill complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

The surrounding community that built up around the mill was named Whitehall, and includes many examples of  mill town style homes. The abandoned home was surely connected somehow to the mill, though it would have been one of the more grand homes in the area. The White family purchased the mill in 1848, beginning three generations of mill ownership, thus being the origin of the name Whitehall. Their family home, White Hall, c.1892 is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and can be learned about  here.

At one time Whitehall was an incorporated city within Clarke County. In recent years, many of the smaller mill houses have been purchased and renovated, being located in a part of the county that has seen an explosion of growth in the past 15 years.

Hopefully, the old house is being maintained with a plan to incorporate it somehow into the expansion of the Greenway; perhaps as an interpretive center of some kind. Time will tell.

St. Helena Parish Chapel of Ease, c. 1740, Beaufort County, SC

Photographer facing south

Located on Lands End Road, SW of Frogmore, SC on St. Helena Island, The Chapel of Ease was built c. 1740 for planters that lived in the area, but found the trip to the parish church in Beaufort, SC to be too burdensome for regular attendance. By 1812, the population of the area was such that it was made a parish church.

Photographer facing NE

The Union Army occupied the area early on during the Civil War, and the church was basically abandoned in 1861. A year later, just north of this site, the Penn Center was established to educate newly freed slaves (350 planters fled the island ahead of the occupation leaving behind 3,000 slaves). Some of the northerners that came as teachers and trainers used the church. It eventually burned in a forest fire in 1886 and was never rebuilt.

The construction of the chapel is classified as mid-18th century colonial tabby construction. Tabby is a building material that consists of sand, water, lime, and crushed oyster shells. The construction type, and the period of historical significance led this site as well as the Penn Center to be included on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photographer facing east

Tate L&N Depot, 1916, Pickens County, GA

L&N Depot

The Tate, or L&N (Louisville and Nashville) Depot was built in 1916, mainly to serve the Georgia Marble Company which was founded by Samuel Tate in 1884. The rail line also carried passengers southbound to Marietta, GA, or northbound through the twists and turns of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Etowah, TN.

The passenger service stopped in the 1940s, but the depot was still used as offices and storage for the L&N Railroad, and later by CSX Transportation. As you can see, the building is no longer in use and appears to be

L&N Depot from Hwy 53

suffering from a lack of maintenance. However, there are plans in the works, and a large federal grant has been given to move the depot across the street and have it restored.

There is some speculation that the reason for this is two-fold; one is to preserve the historical structure, another is to widen Hwy 53 at this point to accommodate the heavily loaded trucks transporting marble from the still-operating Georgia Marble Company.

The depot is included in an area that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

February 1, 2016, Update:

Passing through Tate in January I was able to see the newly renovated and relocated depot. Picked up and moved across Hwy 53 from the old site last year, the depot will now serve a new purpose, though what that will be still seems to be unknown. My only complaint is that the clay tiles were removed from the roof and saved, but were not used as part of the renovation. Overall, I'm glad it was preserved instead of razed, or used for fire department practice. Good job, Pickens County.

Photographer facing NE from S. Railroad Street

Bethlehem Historic District, Richmond County, GA

Circa 1940s Urban Home

Like so many old homes in this historic neighborhood in Augusta, this one has all of its windows and doors boarded. The Bethlehem neighborhood was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is a historically African American neighborhood that began to take shape in the 1870s when the three primary landowners began to subdivide the property based on its location near a developing hub of commerce. Two major roads and the Central of Georgia Railroad came together in this area and spawned businesses and freight yards that made it a desirable area for workers to live in close proximity to employment.

Taken from the National Park Service's brochure on the Bethlehem Historic District:

"The district is architecturally significant for its excellent collection of historic residential, commercial, and community landmark buildings in a variety of styles—Shotgun, Folk Victorian, Colonial Revival, and Craftsman. The residential housing stock was built around the roads and railroad lines.  Most of the houses were small so that a large number could fit into a small area. Some of the later homes are larger."

Shotgun Houses - Wrightsboro Road

Not only homes are of interest in this historic district, but there are several churches, including the Mount Zion Baptist Church as shown below.

Circa 1921 - Wrightsboro Road

 This structure has some particularly interesting features, specifically the white stonework above the triangular windows, each one with an arrow for the cap.

A big change for this neighborhood, hopefully for the better, is on the way. According to the Vison Village project overview:

"Even though the area has experienced significant blight since the early 70s, The City of Augusta has designated the Laney Walker and Historic Bethlehem Communities as urban redevelopment areas in accordance with Section 36-61-7 of Georgia’s Urban Redevelopment Law.  This designation will be a powerful tool to support significant economic development and enhanced quality of life for the citizens of these communities."

 Hopefully this will include the historic preservation of those structures that can be rehabbed. Time will tell.