Georgia Natural Wonder #218 - Crooked River State Park - Camden County. (Part 1). 623

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Georgia Natural Wonder #218 - Crooked River State Park - Camden County (Part 1)

There are currently 48 State Parks in Georgia. Jekyll Island, Lake Lanier Islands, Stone Mountain Park, and Sprewell Bluff Park are no longer State Parks. We have covered all but 15 of the State Parks. There are 17 Historic Sites and we have covered all these within post except the Jefferson Davis Capture Site. Well they are State parks for a reason and we are searching hard for Natural Wonders at this point. It's negligent that I have not covered the history of this Georgia coastal county, but I came to Cumberland Island early in my postings because it is certainly a top 20 Natural Wonder of Georgia. I tweaked the Cumberland Island GNW #15 post to include the National Register of Historic Places on the Island. I come back to Camden County to visit an overlooked but beautiful State Park. The nearby tabby ruins of the McIntosh Sugarworks combine with the State Park to justify a separate Wonder designation so we can tangent on Camden County.



Crooked River State Park is a 500-acre Georgia state park located near St. Mary's on the south bank of the Crooked River, providing an excellent coastal setting. The park is dedicated to the preservation of its natural resources and public education. The park is near the ruins of the McIntosh Sugarworks, built around 1825 and used as a starch factory during the American Civil War. It is the closest state park to Cumberland Island National Seashore and it is adjacent to the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay.



"Set your own pace with the rise and the fall of tides shaping Crooked River State Park, connecting generations with forests, scenic marsh views and abundant coastal wildlife."



Located just a few miles from I-95 on the southern tip of Georgia’s Colonial Coast, this park is the perfect spot for enjoying the Intracoastal Waterway and maritime forest. Campsites are surrounded by palmettos and Spanish moss-draped oaks, while cottages are set near the tidal river. A boat ramp is popular with anglers who often take to the water before sunrise. Just down the road is the ferry to famous Cumberland Island National Seashore known for secluded beaches and wild horses.



The park’s nature trail winds through forest and salt marsh, and hikers may see gopher tortoises, fiddler crabs, herons and other birds. A nature center features fish, snakes, turtles and other animals native to coastal Georgia. Visitors may venture to the nearby ruins of a tabby mill, built around 1825 and later used as a starch factory during the Civil War.



A ParkPass is required for all vehicles. 1-12 passenger vehicles $5 per day or $50 annual ParkPass.



Getting There:

Located 10 miles North of St. Marys on GA Spur 40 or East of Kingsland 12 miles off U.S. 17 and 8 miles off I-95.



Contact Information:

Crooked River State Park 6222 Charlie Smith, Sr Highway St Marys  GA  31558 ----- (912)882-5256



Trails of Crooked River State Park

Bay Boardwalk Loop

Explore this 3.0-mile loop trail near Kings Bay, Georgia. Generally considered an easy route, it takes an average of 52 min to complete. This trail is great for birding, hiking, and walking, and it's unlikely you'll encounter many other people while exploring.



Trail enters deep forest to cross over a tree filled swamp by walking on a raised boardwalk! Length of trail is 1.5 Miles. Saw two snakes, turtles, and 3 Armadillos.



A boardwalk leads to a hardwood and evergreen wetland dominated by two tree species: loblolly bay and swamp bay. Even during winter, this forest appears to be a wall of dark green, dense foliage. Typical south Georgia swamps contain cypress and gum trees that appear bare during colder months. Even during summer, the shade along this trail is noticeably cooler and more humid than other areas.



Although the creek bottom appears mucky, its water is surprisingly clear, coming from rainfall and seepage from the surrounding sandy soil. Decaying trees and leaf litter on the ground form a layer of peat that can be many feet thick. This soil is strongly acidic, high in organic material and holds water like a sponge. Because of this ability, the forest floor does not support fire except during extreme drought conditions.



Common trees and plants in the bay forest include loblolly bay, swamp bay, tulip poplar, water oak, red maple, sweet gum, swamp and water tupelo, cinnamon fern, netted chain fern, climbing hydrangea, muscadine grapes, fetterbrush lyonia and wax myrtle. Look for small ferns in the trees that appear dead during dry weather and alive after it has rained. This is called resurrection fern. Birders may spot red-bellied woodpecker, pileated woodpecker, flicker, sapsucker, yellowthroat warbler, pine warbler, Northern parula warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, nuthatch, great crested flycatcher, Acadian flycatcher, barred owl, great horned owl, red-tailed hawk, and migratory songbirds and raptors.



Sempervirens Trail

This is one of the shorter trails at Crooked River State Park, and it is a pleasant walk through the forest. Visitors may catch sightings of the local wildlife in the area, as well as the abundance of wildflowers in the summer months.



Trail is very wide and clear. Makes it feel a bit safer knowing there are snakes and gators in the area. Didn’t see any though. What I did see was beautiful and amazing.



These old-growth hardwoods give the trail its name, which is Latin for “ever living.” Large oaks, cherries and hickories make up the canopy along the nature loop portion of the trail. These are nurtured by calcium-rich soil, which was created by decomposed oyster shells left by Native Americans. This trail boasts five Georgia Champion Trees: the staggerbush lyonia, Florida soapberry, myrtle oak, chapman oak, and Carolina holly. You may also see Southern magnolia, red cedar, American basswood and yaupon holly.



As you leave the dense hardwoods and enter the pine-oak forest, look for gopher tortoises, Georgia’s state reptile. These large turtles dig burrows in sandy soil and feed on small grasses. You may also see raccoons, armadillos, feral hogs and orb weaver spiders. A birding platform makes it easier to spot great egrets, great blue herons, osprey, pileated woodpeckers, white-eyed vireo and warblers.


Sunrise on the Semper Virens Trail

Palmetto Trail

This 1.5-mile trail highlights south Georgia’s pine flatwoods, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. Its plants and animals are well adapted to periodic fires that maintain a habitat dominated by longleaf pine, saw palmetto and wiregrass.



The open woods are ideal for watching bluebirds, nuthatch, osprey, woodpeckers, warblers and other birds. Gopher tortoises and endangered indigo snakes depend on this habitat for survival. Look for fruit-bearing plants such as blueberries, muscadine grapes, sparkleberry, wax myrtle and gull berry.

River Trail

This trail is short and sweet. Only a few hundred yards long it winds along the bluff and down into the marsh. It is a beautiful spot for fishing and bird watching. Wood Storks and herons roost in the dead pines overlooking the rivers edge. Sheepshead, Whiting, Trout, Black Drum, rays and small sharks can be caught from the shore. This quiet spot overlooks the Crooked River and golden marsh grasses which are famous to Georgia’s coast.



Reviews All Trail

Great place for Birding
May 2022

I walked about 4 miles of trails. I saw lots of beautiful birds, a raccoon, an alligator, two snakes (both nonvenomous), a variety of lizards, and squirrels. I did not see any fox squirrels or gopher tortoises, though I did see many of the tortoise burrows.



Very impressed!
Feb 2022

While visiting St. Mary's we decided to drive through this area to see what it was all about. First off, this is one of the most cleanest parks I have ever seen. From the person at the front desk giving you all the information and maps needed to either drive or hike this place, and the RV and camping area which was spotless and super quiet. The hiking trails were also well marked. The restrooms were the cleanest restrooms in any state park I have ever seen. This was possible due to the volunteers that keep this park looking spotless. They also had a boat ramp area to launch your boats or kayaks. The admission to this park was $5 and well worth every cent.



They also rent cabins which were beautiful if you're not into RVing or tent camping. Keep in mind they book out about 6 months in advance. There are also two sections of cabins. The older and newer ones. I went into both. Both were beautiful. The newer ones overlooked a field that had a gazebo and a playground for kids and the older ones had a Riverview. This is a definite must if you're interstate parks.



McIntosh Sugarworks

The McIntosh Sugarworks, near St. Marys, Georgia, was built in the late 1820s by John Houstoun McIntosh. They are a significant example of tabby concrete architecture and represent an industrial component of southeastern plantation agriculture.



The Tabby Ruins, as they are also known, are at 3600 Charlie Smith Sr. Highway at Georgia Spur 40, six miles north of St. Marys. The entrance is approximately across the street from the entrance to the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, on Charlie Smith Highway, at 30.79310°N 81.57712°W.



The historic sugar mill site outside of St. Marys, Georgia in Camden County, Georgia was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 2, 1992.

History


Front side

John Houstoun McIntosh began planting in Camden County, Georgia after the War of 1812, when he established a permanent residence at Mariana Plantation on the St. Marys River. In 1819 he purchased two smaller plantations and renamed his holdings New Canaan. Thomas Spalding recommended a sugar mill design to McIntosh in 1825, and John Hamilton Couper stated the McIntosh mill was already in production by 1829.



After McIntosh's death in 1836, New Canaan was sold to one Caroline Hallowes in 1840. The Hallowes changed the name of the plantation to Bollingbrook and lived there until after the Civil War. During the war, Colonel Hallowes planted cane and made sugar, and also used the tabby sugar works as a starch factory, producing arrowroot starch in large quantities.



For many years it was believed that the "tabby ruins" were the site of an old Spanish mission. Other tabby sugarhouses in the area include that at Elizafield Plantation on St. Simons Island.

Sugar production at the McIntosh Sugarworks

Attempts to grow sugar in North America likely began during the early 1700s. Sugar became an economically successful crop in the southern United States by the end of the eighteenth century. Sugarcane was a lucrative crop, especially for large plantations. At that time in the Georgia lowcountry large-scale planting focused on rice, and comparatively sugar required "a different growing regimen, but not a different kind of plantation." For John Houstoun McIntosh, sugar added an additional cash crop to his plantations without adding much additional cost.



The processing of the sugar was another story, as the large sugarhouse attests. The construction of the sugarhouse alone required a large amount of materials and labor. Thomas Spalding estimated that one enslaved laborer could take cane from two acres in two months. The enslaved people cut the cane, stripped the leaves, and placed it on flat carts which hauled it to the mills.



The standing tabby walls of the sugarhouse define a rectangular building with three rooms aligned in a row, and two porches off the central room. The McIntosh sugar mill's three rooms were each used for a separate step of the process, making sugar production there a streamlined operation. The central room had a packed earth floor, while the two end rooms had wooden floors built off the ground supported by the tabby walls.



The eastern room contained the mill used to crush the cane to extract the sweet juice, according to Thomas Spalding "the first horizontal cane mill worked by cattle power." Horizontal mills were a relatively new innovation in sugar production in the 1820s, and McIntosh's was purchased from the West Point Foundry in New York. The mill room is the only two-story room at the sugarhouse, with the mill being on the second story while the animals which powered it were below.



In the middle room, the extracted juice was boiled and clarified into a syrup. The syrup was then allowed to crystallize into granules and the molasses was drained off.



The middle room had an earthen instead of wooden floor due to the high temperatures and open flame used to boil the syrup. The boiling operation there involved multiple kettles that allowed for the different stages of condensing the juice into syrup.



In the last room, the syrup was poured into containers where it was allowed to crystallize into granular sugar. The molasses was then poured out of the finished sugar. Both the sugar crystals and molasses were salable goods and the bagasse could be dried and used to fuel the boiling room or used for animal feed.

Camden County Georgia

That's enough for a still interesting Natural Wonder way down here past two hundred. We now tangent on the County. Camden County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 50,513. Its county seat is Woodbine, and the largest city is St. Marys. It is one of the original counties of Georgia, created February 5, 1777.



It is the 11th largest county in the state of Georgia by area, and the 41st largest by population.

History

The colonial period

The first recorded European to visit what is today Camden County was Captain Jean Ribault of France in 1562. Ribault was sent out by French Huguenots to find a suitable place for a settlement. Ribault named the rivers he saw the Seine and the Some, known today as the St. Marys and Satilla Rivers. Ribault described the area as, "Fairest, fruitfulest and pleasantest of all the world."


Images of Ribault and Marker at Fort Matanzas National Monument showing the location where Jean Ribault and his men were slaughtered by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in September 1565.

In 1565, Spain became alarmed by the French settlements and sent out a large force to take over and settle the area. During that time, the Spaniards attempted to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism.



At least two missions operated on Cumberland Island, ministering to the Timucuan people, who had resided on the island for at least four thousand years.



Competing British and Spanish claims to the territory between their respective colonies of South Carolina and Florida was a source of international tension, and the colony of Georgia was founded in 1733 in part to protect the British interests. The Spanish theoretically lost their claim to the territory in 1742 after the Battle of Bloody Marsh (on St. Simons Island). However, settlement south of the Altamaha River (what is now Glynn and Camden Counties) was discouraged by both the British and Spanish governments. One group of settlers led by Edmund Gray sparked Spanish military action after settling on the Satilla River in the 1750s near present-day Burnt Fort.


Wrightsboro Marker and Burnt Fort Chapel.

They were subsequently disbanded by the Royal Governor John Reynolds.



General James Oglethorpe was at Cumberland Island when Tomochichi gave the barrier island its name. Later, he erected a hunting lodge on Cumberland named Dungeness, which was the predecessor of the famous Greene and Carnegie Dungeness Mansions. He also founded Fort St. Andrews on the north end of Cumberland Island as well as a strong battery, Fort Prince Williams, on the south end. Fort Prince Williams commanded the entrance to the St. Marys River, but had become a ruin by the Revolutionary War.


James Oglethorpe presenting Tomochichi and the Yamacraw Indians to the Georgia Trustees on 3 July 1734, by William Verelst.

In 1763, Spain, under a treaty of peace with Great Britain, ceded Florida to the British. After this, the boundaries of Georgia were extended from the Altamaha (now the southern boundary of McIntosh County) to the St. Marys River (the current southern boundary of Camden). In 1765, four parishes were laid out between the Altamaha and St. Marys Rivers.



These were St. Davids, St. Patricks, St. James, and the parishes of St. Marys and St. Thomas.

The early American era

Largely due to security issues arising from proximity to powerful Indian groups and British Florida, Georgia was the last colony to join in the War for Independence in 1775. In the Georgia Constitution of 1777 St. Thomas and St. Marys Parishes were formed into Camden County, named for Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden in England, a supporter of American independence. Originally Camden County was larger and also included parts of present-day Ware, Brantley, and Charlton Counties, which were re-designated in the nineteenth century.





Also under the 1777 state constitution, Glynn County and Camden County had limited and restricted representation in the new patriotic Georgia government due to their extreme "state of alarm" throughout the war. Between 1776 and 1778 Camden County saw the construction of numerous forts, three failed American campaigns against the British at St. Augustine, and numerous depredations by raiders of various allegiance. One of the most notorious of these raiders was Daniel McGirth.


Illustration by A.B. Frost of Daniel McGirth escaping from jail on his fleet mare, "Grey Goose", from a Joel Chandler Harris book.

A significant loyalist faction existed in Camden County, headed by the brothers of Royal Governor James Wright, Charles and German Wright. They built a fort on the St. Marys River in 1775 to protect their lands and chattel during the war after repeated attacks by patriot banditti. It was on Pagan Creek, upriver from Fort Tonyn in East Florida. Wright's Fort became a rendezvous for a group of loyalists called the "Florida Rangers". Two skirmishes were fought by Loyalist and Continental forces over Wright's Fort, and both times American troops failed to rout the Loyalists from the area. Finally, retreating British soldiers burned it down in 1778. The Americans rebuilt it when they invaded East Florida, and then burned it down to prevent it falling into enemy hands. The archaeological site was rediscovered in 1975.



The primary economic enterprise of the county was rice planting, particularly along the Satilla River. Sea Island cotton was grown on Cumberland Island, and short-staple cotton was grown on the mainland along with sugar cane. Various forest products including turpentine and timber were produced, mainly for consumption in the naval industry and the West Indies. Camden County also served as a hub of backcountry trade with American settlers and various Indian groups, and as a shipyard and shipping center centered around the town of St. Marys.



The land in Camden County was owned by fewer than 300 people throughout the colonial and antebellum eras. Most of the white population worked in trades or as tenant farmers, while nearly all black residents were slaves. Until the 1840's and under increasingly strict black codes, Camden County had a small population of free black workers, mainly involved in day labor or maritime industry.



Camden County was the site of many trading posts with the Native Americans, who by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries consisted mainly of people of the Creek Nation. From America's earliest years and even after Indian Removal in the 1830s, the county was a site of significant conflict between settlers and Indians, leading to a small series of local Indian wars, and displacement of both Indian and local American refugees. An important step towards establishing boundaries in the Early Federal period came with the Treaty of Colerain which was signed on June 29, 1796 on the St. Marys between United States agents and the Creeks. Coleraine was a Federal post defending against Indian and Spanish incursions into southern Georgia. Also a Federal Indian trading post, or Factory, with the creation of the Creek Indian Agency (November 1795 - 1797). The Treaty of Coleraine pushed the Creek boundary westward and transferred the Agency to Fort Wilkinson. Fort Pickering was later built here in 1814 to continue to protect the local settlers from the Indians and the Spanish in East Florida, but also as a token answer to the Spanish authorities to help keep Georgia's settlers out of East Florida.


A stone monument was erected here by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1912. State marker (2007) located on GA 40 west of GA 110.

Many men from Camden County volunteered to fight under the above mentioned John Houstoun McIntosh, a wealthy landowner in the region, during the Patriot War in Florida in 1811. These men would go on to help capture the town of Fernandina, Florida.

 


John Houstoun McIntosh Marker, looking south along US 17. Shares location, at wagon entrance, with Rice Hope Marker in McIntosh County.




Rice Hope Marker, looking south along US 17 and wagon way.

On January 15, 1815, British troops led by Sir George Cockburn landed on Cumberland Island. Their goal was to attack the fort at Point Peter. They quickly overwhelmed the small American forced and took Ft. Point Peter easily. After the skirmish, British soldiers occupied the county through February. They raided the town of St. Marys, as well as many plantations and smaller settlements. Although New Orleans was the last major battle of the war, the skirmish at Point Peter happened even later, almost a month after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed. The British occupation of Camden County led to the liberation of an estimated 1,485 slaves from Georgia and Florida.


Sir George Cockburn of Canada, more on this lost war of American/Georgia History with our next post on Camden County.

Camden County was on an international border until the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 between the United States and Spain, making the Florida provinces American territory.



The Civil War and Reconstruction

At the beginning of the Civil War, the population was 5,482 of which 1,721 were white. During the war, many of the county's civilians moved farther inland, particularly to Centerville and Trader's Hill on the St. Marys River in Charlton County. The inhabitant's fears were realized when the town of St. Marys was attacked by United States Navy.



At least one federal party to "carry off" slaves was met by armed resistance on White Oak Creek off the Satilla River.



Camden County organized four volunteer companies: the Camden Chasseurs, St. Marys Volunteers Guard, Camden Rifles, and Camden County Guards.



Camden County land fell under Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15. which dictated the distribution of parcels of land to freedmen.



However, by 1868 Camden County's freedmen found themselves dispossessed of land they had lived and worked on since emancipation or earlier. Confiscated lands were returned to former landowners. During the first years of Reconstruction, Republican candidates and many local blacks were able to gain political victories. The first Democratic victory in the county after the war went to Ray Tompkins. This signaled a return to a white political majority and the end of the Reconstruction Era concurrent with the statewide Democratic victory in 1870.



The 1898 Georgia Hurricane which made landfall on Cumberland Island in Camden County was the strongest hurricane to hit the state of Georgia within recorded history.




Storm surge in Brunswick from a land falling hurricane on Cumberland Island, Georgia in 1898. It killed 179 people. Brunswick, pictured, was most affected; a 16-foot surge was recorded.


This is looking south on Newcastle Street in Brunswick, Georgia. The building with the tall spire (a clock tower) on the right is the old city hall (1893).

Modern

Earlier plans for railways in the area dated back to the 1830s, but construction was never begun. In 1893, Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad built a Savannah-Jacksonville line through Camden County.



In 1923 the county seat of Camden County was moved from St. Marys to Woodbine, a reflection of the shift from the water transportation to railways. In 1927 U.S. Route 17 was constructed through Woodbine and Kingsland.



From 1917 to 1937 a pogy (Atlantic Fish) plant producing oil for Procter & Gamble and fertilizer for the Southern Fertilizer and Chemical Company was one of the major economic activities of the area. The layoffs from the pogy plant found relief when the Gilman Paper Company came to the county in 1939. The company was sold to Durango Paper Co. in 1999, and went out of business in 2002, resulting in 900 workers losing their jobs.



In 1965, Thiokol Chemical launched a 13-foot - diameter, 3,000,000-pound-force -thrust rocket from their chemical plant in the eastern part of the county. On February 3, 1971, a fire and explosion occurred at the plant, located 12 miles southeast of Woodbine. The industrial accident killed 29 workers and seriously injured 50 others.



During World War II, the Georgia State Guard and local Home Guard held bases on Cumberland Island. The island and surrounding waters were also patrolled by the United States Coast Guard. The U.S. Army began to acquire land south of Crooked River in 1954 to build a military ocean terminal to ship ammunition in case of a national emergency. In November 1976 the area of Kings Bay was selected for a submarine base. Soon afterward, the first Navy personnel arrived in the Kings Bay area and started preparations for the orderly transfer of property from the Army to the Navy.


Aerial Photo of King's Bay Naval Base 2001.

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay not only occupies the former Army terminal land, but several thousand additional acres. Camden County's population grew enormously after the military took an interest in the area, and during the 1980s was the fourth fastest growing county in the United States.


Display of submarine-launched missiles on board the base, including the Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident.

Cumberland Island National Seashore was established in 1970 to protect and preserve the natural and historic resources of the island. Crooked River State Park was established in 1985.



In 2012, the Camden County Joint Development Authority began considering developing a spaceport for both horizontal and vertical spacecraft operations. Options included moving the St. Marys' airport to the Atlantic coastal site which had previously been used for a rocket launch in 1965. In 2013, the authority contracted for an Environmental Impact Statement to be completed on 200 acres of authority-owned land, part of a larger 4,200 acres site, in order to build a commercial launch site. As of September 2014, the County was investigating options to purchase 11,000 acres of land from landowners who own the land formerly occupied by Thiokol Chemical and Bayer Crop Science at Harrietts Bluff. If an agreement is reached with landowners, then another 18-month-long environmental impact process could begin on the larger parcel of land. Georgia state legislators would likely offer tax incentives for commercial development in the project. If development were to proceed, the earliest launch possible would have been in 2018, according to the 2014 projections.


Holy Batman we got a rocket base in Georgia?

In June 2015, the Camden board decided to formally advance the Spaceport Camden project by initiating an FAA Environmental Impact Assessment of the 4000+ acre facility.

National Register of Historic Places in Camden County Georgia.

The following National Register of Historic Places are on Cumberland Island which we covered in GNW #15.

Duck House
Dungeness (Cumberland Island, Georgia)
Greyfield Inn
High Point-Half Moon Bluff Historic District
Little Cumberland Island Lighthouse
Main Road
Plum Orchard
Rayfield Archeological District
Stafford Plantation
Table Point Archeological District

We are only covering the non Cumberland Island Historic Places in Camden County with this post.

Camden County Courthouse

The Camden County Courthouse (or Old Camden County Courthouse) is a two-story courthouse in the US city of Woodbine, Georgia.



The courthouse was entered into the United States' National Register of Historic Places in 1980; it is a contributing building in the Woodbine Historic District, which was listed on the NRHP in 1999.


The courthouse was designed by architect Julian de Bruyn Kops (1862-1942) in Late Gothic Revival style and has "shaped parapets with battlements, drip-mold window crowns, and front portico with castellations". Since its completion in 1928, it has served not only as a courthouse for Georgia's Camden County, but also as a venue for meetings, commerce, and other functions.



It was nominated for the NRHP as Georgia's only 20th-century example of Late Gothic Revival architecture. It sports a brick façade, castellated portico and parapets, and rectangular windows with crown molding.

Crooked River Site

(See Above)

Kingsland Commercial Historic District

The Kingsland Commercial Historic District is a 2 acres historic district in Kingsland, Georgia which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.


It included six contributing buildings.



The buildings are one- and two-story, brick and stuccoed commercial buildings built during 1912 to 1943. They include:

    the former State Bank building (1912) on South Railroad Avenue, a two-story brick building
    the Camden Hotel (1929) building on South Lee Street, a two-story brick building, built by contractor M.M. Jarvis
    the newspaper building (1925), South Lee Street, with Art Deco-influenced elements.



McIntosh Sugarworks

(See Above)

Orange Hall

Orange Hall c. 1830, is located at 311 Osborne St., St. Marys, Georgia, United States, located within the St. Marys Historic District in Camden County and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 7, 1973.



In 2011, Orange Hall was added to the list of the state of Georgia's ten most endangered historic sites by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.

Historical significance

Orange Hall is a good example of the temple-form Greek Revival dwelling. A frame building with clapboard siding, it is among the first structures of Greek Revival design in America. The name originated from the orange trees that surrounded the house.



Other details include: two stories, a gabled roof, interior chimneys, front center entrance with side lights and transom surmounted by low pedimented lintel, front tetrastyle prostyle Doric pedimented portico supported by projecting basement, and a rear center recessed two-story porch.

Historic American Buildings Survey

The Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record has the following data recorded regarding Orange Hall.



Owner in 1934: S.C. Townsend, Date of Erection: 1810–1815, Architect: No record, Builder: No record, Built for the Rev. Horace Southworth Pratt, a Presbyterian minister.

Architectural notes

This building of the Early Republican period is a Doric pro-style temple. The pediment is flattened and the columns are widely spaced. At the rear end is a superimposed inset portico, one porch above the other.



The brink basement story is stuccoed and has stucco quoins of inch projection. In the basement used to be the old kitchen, now marked by its whitewashed walls, a herringbone brick floor pattern and a Dutch oven. The old Dining Room was under the front portico.

History

Construction and original ownership

The property on which Orange Hall stands today was originally granted to William Ashley, one of the twenty founders of St. Marys, in 1787.



Phineas Miller is listed as the owner of the lot when it was sold to Ethan Clarke in 1803. In 1826, the lot was divided and the northern half was sold to the wealthy John Wood and Horace Southworth Pratt, a Presbyterian minister. Pratt had arrived in St. Marys around 1820, established the First Presbyterian Church of St. Marys in 1822, and married Wood's daughter, Jane, in 1823.



In 1829, before construction of Orange Hall began, Pratt's wife, Jane, died. Pratt remained in St. Marys and remarried a few years later. In 1838, construction of Orange hall completed, with master carpenter Isaac Slayton listed as the builder. In 1839, Pratt, a Yale and Princeton graduate, took a position as a professor at the University of Alabama and left Orange Hall behind. General Duncan Lamont Clinch is thought to have lived there when Pratt left for Alabama. Pratt died in 1840 before he could return to Orange Hall.

Preservation

Orange Hall fell into disrepair during the 1960s. In 1975, the City of St. Marys, the local Chamber of Commerce, and the Gilman Paper Company, assisted by numerous clubs and individuals, initiated an effort to preserve and restore the building. Work began in 1978 using skilled but unemployed high school students because the historic grant required the use of unemployed laborers, which the coordinators were unsuccessful at organizing. The project was highly successful and completed in 1980.



In 1982, Naval Reserve Commander John K. Mott completed an extensive restoration plan for the property. Due to limited available of funding, very few of his recommendations were implemented.



In 1983, a group of Navy Reservist Seabees took part in repair and reconstruction activities during their summer active duty session.

St. Marys Historic District

St. Marys Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 13, 1976 and is located in St. Marys, Georgia.



The city was first settled in the mid-16th century by the Spanish.


General John Floyd house 1830.  Rudolph-Riggins House 1911.


Goodbread Inn B&B 1872. Spencer House, 1872.

Historical significance

The St. Marys historic district is roughly bounded by Waterfront Rd., Norris Alexander, and Oak Grove Cemetery.



It contains portions of the original 18th-century town containing residential, commercial, and religious buildings dating from the late 18th-early 20th century.



Notable features include the waterfront area, the early cemetery, a bell cast by Paul and Joseph Warren Revere, and a memorial oak planted the day of George Washington's burial. Established by an act of the state legislature on December 5, 1792, and was incorporated in November 1802.



St. Marys served as Camden County Georgia's seat of government from 1869 until 1923.



Orange Hall is a contributing property and is also on the NRHP individually. The St. Marys United Methodist Church was founded in 1799. It is considered to be the father of Florida's Methodist Churches.

Woodbine Historic District

The Woodbine Historic District in Woodbine, Georgia was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1999.



It includes the 1928-built Camden County Courthouse and the Atkinson Memorial Building (210 East 4th Street). The Atkinson Building was built in 1944. The Atkinson Building is the only International Style structure within the district.



Woodbine's historic homes and come for the annual Crawfish Festival.



Whoa, this post has 134 images. Kinda disappointed a Canadian captured a portion of Georgia and that is the focus of our second post on Camden County coming up. Guess I am going to have another place to stop and explore the next time I go to the Cocktail Party. Georgia is blasting off into space and has it's finger on underwater missiles of mass destruction. The edge of Georgia before you cross the St. Mary's River into Florida. Today's Georgia Natural Wonder Gals are some I could spend an extended mission on a Submarine with.