Sherry Kiltz writes that this was originally L.C. Moon’s Grocery and that his family also owned the red building next door (package store). Mr. L.C. was also the mayor of Scotland for years.
Corrugated tin buildings of this style were once widely used as stores in small towns throughout Georgia, as I’ve found in my travels, but the ones that survive are often resigned to storage use today. It was later known as Smith’s Grocery and Granny’s Restaurant.
I first though this might have been a bank, but the placement of the front windows, if original, would suggest it was a store or office.
This gin is a remnant of a busier time in Scotland. Cotton was so dominant in the early- to mid-20th century that even the smallest towns often supported at least one gin.
The style of this house is vernacular, but that’s where a simple definition ends for me. It’s one of the most unique houses in this area. The hand-scalloped enclosed-arch porch posts hint at a Spanish Eclectic and Mediterranean/Italian influence, but might better be described as eccentric.
The gable hip-roofed cottages pictured here are located across 2nd Avenue from each other.
Eleanor Clegg Smith writes: “These houses were owned by Mr. John Henry Clements. He lived in the one with the screened porch on two sides. The one across the street (with the large cedar trees) was his and he rented it out. His daughter Estelle and husband Cecil Cook, lived in the “eccentric” house for awhile in the 1940’s until they bought a larger home.“
Update: Carolyn Wilson wrote that this structure was torn down in 2012. It’s really a shame as it was one of the best reminders of Scotland’s earlier boom times. Ron Monroe is leading an effort to produce a replica of the structure for the local museum. You can contact him at (229) 362-4664. You can also contact him at gailmonroe2000ATyahooDOTcom.
Main Street in Scotland features buildings from various time periods. I found it quite unusual that city hall (beige building, left) is located next door to a liquor store (red building, center). Scotland is a neat little town, out of the way for most travelers but worth a look. Settled after the Civil War by Scotch Presbyterians, Scotland was first known as McVille, for the ancestry of most of the first residents. The name was changed at the request of the railroad to avoid confusion with nearby McRae. Though he left as a young man and entered service in World War I, my maternal great-grandfather, Burt Herman Browning, was born here in 1892.