After this week’s road trip, we still don’t know what to make of Watkinsville. Usually we are able to figure out what is going on in a town after being around for awhile, but in this particular case it wasn’t that obvious. It will give us an excuse to go back at some point. Everyplace has a story. For the time being, and shrinkingly so, we were still able to find some examples of Human Scale Living.
Directions
Watkinsville is close to Athens. At the end of the driveway, turn left. Go to the middle of town, and at 441 take another left. Keep going through town and follow the signs to Athens. In about 35 minutes you will have made it. Look for the signs. I think you need to take one last left to get to the middle of town.
History
Watkinsville was founded in 1791, and was one of the earliest settlements in this part of the state. Like a lot of these towns, it is at the intersection of about four different highways, and also the old railroad line between Athens and Milledgeville. The location became an excuse for a tavern, the Eagle Tavern, which is still standing and undergoing some renovation the day we were there. This old New England Federal Style home was so true to its roots that the gutters included some snow breakers, despite the local lack of snow.
The Wikipedia link is below.
Being close to Athens as it is, Oconee County is one of the more prosperous in the area. They have a lot going on, including good schools. According to the link below, Oconee is one of the three healthiest counties in Georgia. Like the surrounding area, the population of this place collapsed by 50% between 1920 and 1960 but now, there is some suburbia going on here.
Courthouse Square
We checked into the courthouse square, which we correctly guessed was a product of the WPA. At some point, quite possibly the renovation in the 90’s, they moved their confederate. There is a more modest monument nearby.
The Visitor’s Center
What we make of Watkinsville is that they’re trying to be friendly. We were approached by Joann, the Visitor Center manager, where we were given the skinny on the town’s history. Joann was quite welcoming and recommended local places for food.
The brochure here is good because it points out some of the old buildings in town, and tells you when they were built. One of the things we like to do is try to guess this ourselves, and are getting good at it.
The Attic Treasures was right next door.
Attic Treasures
We go into a lot of antique places, but this one takes the cake. It is run by Charles, a former UGA professor who opened it after he outgrew his flea market stall in Madison. It is more correct to say that this is part antique place and part museum.
This place is packed full of what might be called relics of several different bygone eras. There are civil war and WWII artifacts. There are very well preserved relics from the local “insane asylum”. He has over 2000 rare and antique tobacco pipes (we were treated to a detailed medical explanation about how pipe smoking is less toxic than other types of smoking). And, there is also a collection of a lot of other stuff that are somewhere between politically incorrect and illegal, depending on who is asking.
There was also a jackalope sighting, along with some of fossils, including dinosaur eggs.
While we were there, a fellow appeared. He has made a career out of obtaining “period” props for some of the local film productions. The film people call him when they need just the right relic. He uses this place as a primary source.
What we can make of Charles who is now 90 is that in this place, he is part of the product. He so loves occasionally selling these things. But, when you ask him, a lot of the things are not for sale. It is more like he has surrounded himself with things that he is interested in. For that you have to say he is living the dream, as we now say.
His link is below.
One of the reasons to explore a town like this is to find characters exactly like Charles. Characters are as rare as dinosaur eggs in this age.
What to make of Watkinsville Foot Traffic
Because it is corporate policy, we consulted with Joanna about the local food. She suggested the Sunshine Cafe for brunch. It was about a half mile away and we decided to take off on foot.
Watkinsville is not very foot-traffic friendly. That day, the power company was doing work on the overhead lines. There was a traffic jam of noisy 18-wheelers that see fit to go right down the middle of town noisily.
To their credit, according to the website below, they recognized this at some point and are somewhere midstream of making a system of paths and walking trails.
We got off of main street and walked around in the surrounding neighborhood. If you want a project, there are a couple of Victorian era houses nearby that could use some love and care. We decided that one B&B per lifetime is probably sufficient, but we can give ideas if this is for you.
Brunch with the Locals
The Sunshine Cafe is authentic, and stuck in the strip shop next to the Chevron station. We like opportunities when we see them, and in this place the opportunity would be to use some of Charles’ decor and make it more visually interesting.
We like to support the local businesses when we can and it was part of the experience in this case.
Essential Elements
We used the walk back to check in with the Essential Elements. These are all of the things you see in these little towns. There are rich guys’ houses and prosperous churches. In Watkinsville, there is a rare example of a barber shop on main street.
What to make of Watkinsville is that they’ve spent a little money on some metal sculptures. The tricky walk was made more visually interesting because of it.
The old town gas station is also preserved here. it is in a bit of an odd position. Evidently the road moved at some point in the past, even though the gas station still stands.
Chair Envy
What to make of Watkinsville is that if you are sitting in front of a store here, someone will approach you and talk to you. In this case the store was the Spa Store, and the character was a tall, lean fellow with gray hair, wearing sandals and socks.
He asked us how we liked the chairs, and we explained to him that Adirondacks are our favorite kind, but at $800 these were a bit pricey for us. The preferred lawn sitting chairs at the Firefly, pretty bed and breakfast near Madison GA, are yard sale type that we fix and/or paint ourselves.
His was a story of having recently moved into assisted living,from his 80-acre farm. His poor wife was having some mobility issues, and he wanted a chair, but could not bite the bullet for one of these either.
PS: This one is similar, but not really. The one at the store was made with composite, and was very confortable.
What to make of Watkinsville is that people are friendly enough to share their story with you. This fellow also ought to be a character in a movie scene at some point. People in some of these little towns will tell you a lot, if you sit and listen.
OCAF
By this time it was warm and humid enough to evolve to driving.
We checked in with the Oconee County Art Foundation. What to make of Watkinsville is that there is a group of people that is willing to put human effort into the arts. They’ve rebuilt one of the old school buildings, and turned it into a beautiful gallery.
There is a website below. They were banging on something when we were there because they’re working on their June show. We appreciate human effort in all of its forms. One of the signs of prosperity is that there are giving, energetic people.
Watkinsville Woods
There is a five acre park, on the south edge of downtown, that is a unique feature. This place is one of those that was never turned into farmland, and as a result, a lot of the old trees here are original growth.
The local library has erected a little story path here, and beyond that, some historical markers.
Pulpit Rock is a place where Atticus Haygood, a Methodist minister, used to give his sermon before the local prosperous church was built.
This space is lovely, quiet, and the old trees that are still standing have some stories to tell as well. There are some remnants of old structures here, and there are some underlying stories we are sure. A little stream runs through the middle.
A Dark Past
In May of 1905, there was an unusually violent incident of racial violence here. We’re letting you know that it happened, and providing a couple of links for doing some research of your own. UGA has initiated a project on this topic. It’s not for everybody.
You may draw whatever conclusions you want about this period in history, keeping in mind the Prime Directive and Temporal Prime Directive. The Europeans and Californians may be open minded enough not to “blame” the current residents for what happened three generations ago, and enjoy this place for what it is.
Maybe most of them at this point are unaware that it happened. Hopefully we’ve moved beyond it at this point. Sorry to be a downer, but it is better not to ignore it.
Maybe that was the missing piece of “what to make of ‘Watkinsville.”
Do Over: What to make of Watkinsville?
So would we come here again? Sure, and we would send our guests here. We’d stick to driving, skip breakfast, stop in to the Village Pub, which is across the street from the courthouse. We might skip the walk, except we’d go back to the Watkinsville Woods, which was an unusually beautiful place in its way.
We’d also sit in the chairs in front of the Spa shop and see who approaches us, and gives us their story.
And, we’d for sure stop into the Attic Antiques just because it was there. According to the sign, it’s supposed to be open Thursday through Saturday, but it was Tuesday and Charles was in there. Our guess is that he is good for more than one story.
Maybe that is a reason for exploring these places. Everybody has a story, sometimes it is funny and sometimes it is dark. If we were any kind of writers, we would write some of them down and use them in our next historical novel.
Be there in the square, because it is there. Oh, and we’re part of the story now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watkinsville,_Georgia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oconee_County,_Georgia
https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/atticus-g-haygood-1839-1896
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watkinsville_lynching
