From beloved homes and family histories to lost landmarks, 2025 was an interesting year. Advances in technology have brought challenges, and though we’ll be exploring new formats in 2026, Vanishing Georgia is still here. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and have a safe and happy New Year.
Following is a random gallery of some of my favorite photographs of Youngs Chapel Methodist Church in Ben Hill County. Since its no longer with us, I thought I’d share. I’ve made around a thousand photographs over the years, so it was difficult to pick just a few. I hope you enjoy them as much I enjoyed making them.
When I first photographed Youngs Chapel, in 1999, I was just beginning to appreciate historic architecture around my hometown of Fitzgerald.
May 2008
I was nearly 30 at the time, and though I had spent far too much time rambling the back roads of the area, Young’s Chapel was new to me. It was proof that even in a small county, there was always something new to discover.
April 2009
At the time, the church still had a wooden sign on the front porch, the roof was still intact, and most of the wall boards were intact. The pews were also still present, before being removed by a family member for safe keeping.
July 2010
I learned of the existence of the church through an article in our local paper, and armed with a good county road map (this was before our phones became our navigators), I easily located it.
May 2011
Over time, Youngs Chapel became an anchor in my travels around Georgia. Even after I had documented all 159 of the state’s counties, it held a special place in my heart.
June 2011
On visits home to Ben Hill County, I usually made the 18 mile trek out to its northwestern corner to “check on the church”.
March 2012
For me, it was a symbol of everything I wanted to photograph, the forgotten simple places people built to serve immediate and utilitarian needs.
November 2012
When I went to check on the church at Thanksgiving, I had a heightened sense of worry. When I turned onto Youngs Chapel Road off the Lower Rebecca Road, I had a strange feeling, and as I got closer, I couldn’t see the familiar roofline in the distance.
March 2013
Upon my approach, my worst fears were confirmed. Youngs Chapel, already weakened by a tornado and long abandoned, had collapsed sometime earlier. Somehow, I knew before I arrived that it was gone.
April 2013
And so ends the long history of just another country church, lost not to lack of concern but to the elements.
October 2014
The place wasn’t just an anchor for my travels and discoveries. It was also the center of a long lost community and held a special place in the hearts of the families who sustained it for over a century.
May 2015
People moved away but their descendants still came and kept its grounds manicured and its cemetery free of weeds and brambles as long as they could.
August 2015
Youngs Chapel was built in the waning years of the 1800s and was the heart of the long forgotten Ashley community.
August 2016
Congregants first met in a brush arbor circa 1875.
February 2017. Tornado damage.
They built this church, but moved it to its present location about three miles from its first home, circa 1890.
July 2022
The land was donated by John Thomas Young, an area pioneer, and may have been named for him. It possibly had another name when it was organized.
November 2025
The congregation dwindled over time, as older members died and younger generations moved away.
November 2025
The last renovations to Youngs Chapel were made in 1971 and by 1974, the church was closed.
I like to think that the members would be shocked by all the interest in this little building that was their church home, but I think they would be proud of what they built and how long it lasted.
I am sad for the building and bemoan its loss, but I’m thankful that I was able to document it and share it with the wider world.
Fleming (not to be confused with Flemington) is one of two communities in Liberty County named for the pioneer William Fleming family, who owned large area plantations. Fleming proper is actually a bit off GA-196 (Leroy Coffer Highway) on Fleming Loop, but since so many people take this shortcut between Hinesville and Savannah, this was a good place to put the name of this little-known community out there for everyone to see. This newer store and a fruit stand stay fairly busy, and no doubt the Coca-Cola mural, done in the old style, still draws people off the road.
And a brief message to those of you who have sent me messages recently. Thanks for your concern, and yes, I’m still around. I will do my best to answer as many of you as possible. Year’s end has found me getting the gamut of mid-life medical tests and all the fun that entails, and planning some new directions for Vanishing Georgia. I just wanted check in and will keep you all posted.
Five Points Grocery is located at a busy curve on Georgia Highway 26, and though I had passed it many time on earlier travels, I had never stopped until a recent trip to Columbus. As Mike McCall and I were photographing the little shotgun building, one of the co-owners, Naomi Weaver, waved and invited us inside. The store was closed that day for the preparations for a community wedding, but she was a gracious host, not rushed or bothered by all our questions.
Naomi related that she didn’t know a lot of the specific history of the building, but I gathered it was likely built in the 1920s or 1930s. It would have likely been the retail anchor of the nearby Flint River Farms, a New Deal resettlement project that helped area farmers build homes and buy property in the darkest days of the Great Depression.
It’s rare to find stores like this today, and even rarer to find them vibrant and still at the heart of their communities. While the owners have added a storage area at the back of the building, which Naomi was rightfully proud of, the interior of the store itself is largely unchanged from what it would have looked like over half a century ago.
Naomi noted that Mom’s Kitchen, which serves early breakfasts to scores of busy farmers and farmhands, was one of the biggest draws at Five Points Grocery.
This part of the store is reserved for anyone who just wants to sit around and shoot the breeze. In that way, it’s as authentic as any country store I’ve found. With the instantly gratified and hurried world that technology and mass market retail have wrought, it really is rewarding to come across places like Five Points Grocery and people like Naomi Weaver.
This is deep in Macon County Mennonite country, and if you aren’t familiar, the Mennonites of Macon County have been known for their hospitality and good food for a couple of generations. Alva and Sara Yoder opened the landmark Yoder’s Deitsch House and Bakery just up the road toward Montezuma in July 1984 and its been a destination for people from all over the region since then. On the day we visited with Naomi, we also stopped at Yoder’s and it was packed as usual.
This is one of numerous structures that make up the Golden Peanut facility in Dawson. Georgia is the leading peanut producer in the nation, and Terrell County is one of the leading counties for production. Dawson is also home to the National Peanut Research Laboratory, a project of the United States Department of Agriculture.
This classic Miller Meteor Hearse served Albritten’s Funeral Service in Dawson for many years. Robert L. Albritten opened Albritten’s Funeral Service, with Bobby E. Glover, at 527 Lemon Street in 1966, and they are still in business.
The Miller-Meteor line of Cadillac hearses was made famous in the movie Ghostbusters, and as a result is one of the most recognized funeral cars ever produced. In that movie, the Ecto-1 was a 1959 custom; this hearse was likely made in the early 1970s.
This three-bay gable front church is located just southwest of County Line Baptist Church and its historic cemetery. It it possible that it served a Black congregation connected at one time to that church. It is missing its pews and appears to have been abandoned for quite some time. I will continue to try to identify it and will update if I can.
This isolated saddlebag cottage, likely a tenant house, was identified in an architectural survey in the early 1990s and dated to circa 1900. The date is an educated guess but a good one. It is a slightly unusual variant of the saddlebag form, made so by the addition of a central window in the facade.
This history of Morris is a bit difficult to track down, but before it was known as Morris, it was Morris Station, a railroad whistle stop. A post office at Morris Station existed from 1860-1950, at which time the name was changed to Morris. There is no consensus as to the hamlet’s namesake, but Ken Krakow, in Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origin, suggests it was possibly James Morris, the son of an early railroad agent.
Morris is located off US Highway 82 on Morris Road. It’s southeast of Georgetown, the only incorporated settlement in Quitman County, which as of 2020 was Georgia’s second least populous with just 2235 residents.
