Rustic Cotton Warehouse – Rural Georgia Art Print

Description

This lonely old cotton warehouse in this print is located in the small town of Byromville in rural Georgia. I stumbled over this old structure by the railroad tracks one fall afternoon. The late afternoon sunlight was a real treat with the golden grasses and the old red brick of the warehouse. There was a timeless feel to the print and you could almost imagine trains loaded with bales of cotton on adjacent tracks. But those days are long past.

Byromville is near my hometown in a neighboring rural county, but the story there is not that different from many rural towns in the south. The community was founded around the mid 1850’s but not incorporated until 1905. In the 21st century, less than 500 people call this Byromville home. The days of King Cotton have passed and a lot of small town America like this slowly slips into a vanishing past. In bigger towns that were less dependent on local agriculture, old cotton warehouses may find a new use, but in much of rural Georgia, the people who call these places home get to watch these old buildings crumble.

These are the sort of places I love to photograph. It always feels to me that I may be preserving these communities and their architecture in my photos. I certainly hope these little towns turn around and find new life and purpose. Certainly in a world where telecommuting is possible, it seems like there should be a way. But if some of them don’t make it, I feel better having captured the essence of these small communities before the vanish.

Do you have roots in Byromville? Or does this rustic Cotton Warehouse print speak to you on a deeper level than family roots? I hope you’ll take a moment to let me know how this print connects with you!