The Fletcher Grand Tour of Georgia - Stage 3: Valdosta

If people were surprised we were going to Columbus as part of our tour of Georgia, they were amazed we were going down to Valdosta.  "What are you going to do there?" numerous people asked.  Even the girl in the hotel in Valdosta couldn't understand how anyone from England could end up in Valdosta on holiday!  If truth be known, I also had no idea really why we were going there.  All I knew was that it meant we didn't have to do a near 5 hour journey from Columbus to St Simon's Island.  Driving for 4 hours from Columbus to Valdosta was bad enough, but an extra hour would have been too much - showing that I've obviously not yet become fully acclimatised to American culture!  Our drive from Columbus to Valdosta allowed me to introduce Mum and Dad to another American institution - Cracker Barrel.  Unfortunately, Dad and I weren't quite able to shepherd Mum through the Country Store without her stopping to buy something.  Our lunch at Cracker Barrel also gave me chance to use the gift card given to me by Amy and Tim - our friends from North Carolina.

  We only had one full day in Valdosta as we hadn't arrived until the afternoon on Thursday and we would be leaving in the morning on Saturday.  However, we had heard that there was a nice historic walking tour around the downtown area of Valdosta which suited us as we didn't fancy spending a lot of time in the car.  It turned out to be a really interesting day seeing some interesting buildings and just experiencing life in an ordinary Southern town.

First Presbyterian Church

First United Methodist Church

First Baptist Church

   In Atlanta there were many Protestant churches which seemed to have been built in a very similar design.  However, in Valdosta, The Methodist church, the Presbyterian church and the Baptist church were all very different in appearance. Sadly, none were open for us to walk in and look around.  Despite looking quite different, they all date from a similar time with the Baptist church being built in 1899 and the Presbyterian and Methodist churches dating from 1905.  All three churches had very impressive looking facilities with buildings for offices and classrooms stretching out behind them.  The building for the Methodist church stretched along the street for a whole block.  I will have to readjust to life with less space in churches when I get back home!

Converse-Dalton-Ferrell House

  There were also a number of different houses which have historic importance.  For example there was the Converse-Dalton-Ferrell House.  This dates from 1902 and is currently up for rent.  However - I'm not sure it is quite in my price range!  One realises how 'young' this country is, or at least how it is only relatively recently that they have begun preserving historic buildings, that houses which are only just over 100 years old are considered historic, and that there is very little from before that period.


 

County Courthouse

Monument for Confederate Soldiers

Also in Valdosta was the County Courthouse for the Lowndes County.
 This is a typical example of Classical Revival architecture (at least that's what the brochure says!).  It certainly was a prominent feature in the town centre.  One interesting monument outside the courthouse was the memorial to the Confederate soldiers from Valdosta killed during the Civil War.  This was placed there by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1911 and shows that even 50 years after the Civil War, emotions still ran deep.

The Crescent House

View down to the front of the house

  Finally, we drove a bit out of the town centre to the Crescent House.  Apparently, this is Valdosta's best known landmark, but unfortunately there was a function about to happen there, so it was not open to tour.  However, we were able to walk around the outside and in the small garden at the back.  There are 13 pillars around its outside which are meant to represent the original 13 colonies which made up the United States.  The garden also had a number of live oak trees covered in the Spanish moss which seems so common down in the South.  Around the back of the house was a lovely garden - it looked to me like a miniature version of an English stately home's garden (now it's not often that America has a miniature version of something English!).  They also had a lovely little chapel - although this again was closed.

Live Oak with Spanish Moss

The chapel in the back garden

  As I said earlier, we did enjoy being part of what felt like an ordinary American town - away from the tourist trail.  The only thing we would have liked was for the town centre to be pedestrianised - or at least to ban the big lorries because our nice quiet lunch sitting outside this lovely cafe was often punctuated by trucks rumbling down the street!  After this stopover in Valdosta, we were ready to head east to the coast.