Georgetown, Mississippi...lost In Time.

[Keep the Show on the Road! 34]

When I set out on the Hypotenuse Trail, I hoped to discover glimpses of America’s past. Georgetown, Mississippi was a hidden gem, a town time truly left behind. The park and the abandoned buildings along the old main street had the feeling of America past. The business section had moved to the highway.

 

The photographs taken using today’s technology show Georgetown as it is today, but don’t quite convey the feeling of the past. I have taken the liberty to present Georgetown ….long ago.

 

Georgetown is on Mississippi State 27, about 29 miles south of Jackson…as the crow flies. The “main street” of yesterday is along Railroad Avenue.

 

 

Main Street (Railroad Ave) Georgetown, Mississippi

 

 

Merchants and Planters Bank

 

 

Blue and White Grocery

 

 

Merry Go Round in the Park

 

 

Gazebo in the Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alex Burr - hester_nec 4]

Forever frozen in time - Georgetown is not alone in Mississippi. There are many towns like this. They hit bottom in the depression nearly 80 years ago and never recovered.

 

Just about every southern state has towns like this - as do some of the more rural northern states, like way down-east Maine and vast areas of the west.

 

Love the sepia treatment - I've experimented with it myself.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

[Keep the Show on the Road! 34]

Forever frozen in time - Georgetown is not alone in Mississippi. There are many towns like this. They hit bottom in the depression nearly 80 years ago and never recovered.

 

Just about every southern state has towns like this - as do some of the more rural northern states, like way down-east Maine and vast areas of the west.

 

Love the sepia treatment - I've experimented with it myself.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

 

Alex,

 

Thanks! I was messing around trying to depict the "feeling" of the place. It looked a lot older in sepia!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

[cityboy1986 0]

Dave,

 

Thanks for sharing the pics and videos. I passed through this town many times as a child without giving a second thought to the buildings to the east of the highway. I simply thought of Georgetown as the place between Monticello and Crystal Springs where there was a stop sign.

 

Echoing Alex's post, the community in which I live was said to be thriving until the railroad closed in 1933. The post office closed in the early '50s, and the store lasted until the mid-1980s. The only way to tell there was once a town is the old school (which now functions as a preschool).

 

Tracy

[Keep the Show on the Road! 34]

Dave,

 

Thanks for sharing the pics and videos. I passed through this town many times as a child without giving a second thought to the buildings to the east of the highway. I simply thought of Georgetown as the place between Monticello and Crystal Springs where there was a stop sign.

 

Echoing Alex's post, the community in which I live was said to be thriving until the railroad closed in 1933. The post office closed in the early '50s, and the store lasted until the mid-1980s. The only way to tell there was once a town is the old school (which now functions as a preschool).

 

Tracy

 

Tracy,

 

That is extremely interesting to me! I had no idea you knew Georgetown.

 

Is Alex correct? Would I find many other “Georgetowns” in Mississippi?

 

Remembering that I was looking for glimpses of the past, particularly the 1940’s, it has it all. Maybe it was the almost perfect playground with the intact but abandoned commercial buildings, the beautiful bank building, and the water tower that made it so interesting.

 

Where else in America will you find today a playground with a tether ball post, a gazebo, traditional swings, picnic tables, a wooden merry go round with the original pipe bars, set among huge old shade trees with a water tower, flag flying on the flagpole, and authentic main street in the background? All that was missing was a teeter totter.

 

I have been “collecting” abandoned towns for years, and Georgetown is in the top 1%.

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave