Old Holiday Inn in Marietta, Ga

So an item that has been a point of contention in the City of Marietta, Georgia is this old Holiday Inn hotel that sits along Delk Road off I-75 in Marietta. Built in 1975, this hotel sported 193 rooms on six floors and was in service up until an electrical fire in 2006 forced it’s closing. This is an especially tragic story as 1 hotel guest was killed in the fire and 20 others were injured. Over the years the property has been owned by a few different owners and many times the city has been promised that the hotel …

Sparta Furniture Manufacturing Company

This week as part of my Sparta, Ga project I completed my Youtube video on the city. Sparta is the County Seat of Hancock County and was once a very prosperous and thriving little city. Founded in 1795 Sparta became a large part of Georgia’s cotton industry. The building shown above was originally the Sparta Cotton Warehouse which sat along the all important rail line, but with the arrival of the boll weevil in the 1920s the cotton industry was decimated. The building was later bought in the 1950s and turned into the Sparta Furniture Manufacturing Company. The new company made …

Sparta, Ga in Hancock County

This week’s blog post is on a town that is near and dear to me as someone who comes from a large family of small business owners. Sparta, Ga is located in Hancock County and is actually the county seat. In the early 1800s Sparta and Hancock County were the cotton capital of the world. They remained at the top of the cotton crop world up until after World War I when the boll weevil epidemic decimated the cotton fields and the cotton industry died out. Today driving down Broad Street, the main street in the town shows rows of …

Central State Mental Hospital – Milledgeville, Ga

One of the spookiest places I have come across in my travels for my Forgotten Pieces of Georgia project is the Central State Mental Hospital in Milledgeville, Ga. This facility was opened in December of 1842 and is still partially used today. The complex includes 200 buildings on 2,000 acres and at one time was the largest mental health facility in the world. The hospital was  run by Dr Thomas A Green from 1845-1879 and the care of patients in those days was a “family” environment. During his tenure, Green ate with the staff and patients and abolished all rope …

Stancil’s Store – Ball Ground, Ga

Today’s blog post is on the now shuttered Stancil’s Store and Amoco station in Ball Ground, Ga. Stancil’s opened in 1912 as a general store, and sold a little bit of everything. They were the local gas station, hardware store and shoe store. They pretty much carried a little bit of everything that a family could need from dry goods to firewood, coal and most small appliances for the home. The signs on the outside of this decaying building show that they were the local Red Wing shoes and boots store and from what locals have told me, they were also …

Dashburst Magazine Article

Back on August 6th of 2015 a new Social Media site for photographers and other creative types did an article on my Forgotten Pieces of Georgia project in their digital magazine. I was totally honored and blown away that they wanted do to a feature story on my work and that they made me a featured member of their community. As one of the first photographers to sign up for their site, and someone who posts weekly blog posts on photography and photography related items, being a featured members means that when new members sign up, I am one of …