Golden Isles History

This story originally ran in the January 2026 edition of Discover Downtown Brunswick, a publication of The Brunswick News, Brunswick, GA.   Josh Dukes is a local historian and chair of the Brunswick Historic Preservation Board. He is co-author of the book Brunswick: Past & Present, available at local retailers and online. Brunswick's US Custom House and Post Office still stands today as Brunswick City Hall because of tireless work by preservationists like the McGarvey Sisters. Cormac McGarvey stands above his sisters Virginia (left), Margaret (right), and Mary (bottom) In December 1963, a full-page advertisement appeared in The Brunswick News under a stark headline: “PLEASE HELP SAVE ME!” The voice speaking to readers was not a politician or civic group, but a building at 601 Gloucester Street—the former U.S. Custom House and Post Office. It described its copper details, steel joists, vaulted ceilings, and architectural pedigree, warning that once torn down it could never...

This article first appeared in Discover Downtown Brunswick, a publication of The Brunswick News, Brunswick, GA Each historic square in Brunswick wears its name like a badge—literally in most cases, as you can view most of their attractive signposts from a casual drive by. The squares were never just empty greenspace. They were reserved for domestic use, providing shade, livestock grazing, recreation, and breathing room within the proposed tight urban grid.   They were markers laid into the original 1771 Oglethorpe Plan as deliberately as the streets. And like the original streets, the largest squares were name to remind us of some person or place that mattered at the time.   Some of the smaller green spaces south of the business district— now called St. Simons, Satilla, Frederica, and Crispen – were originally nameless and referred to as “Places” on the town plat. These unassuming parks centered along Newcastle and Norwich Streets are great for a casual stroll these days, an...

This article was originally published in Discover Downtown Brunswick, a publication of The Brunswick News, Brunswick, GA. I’m a Google Maps nerd. I love submitting recommendations for road fixes and adding missing businesses. Waterways are notoriously hard to get corrected on Google Maps, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. If you’ve looked at Brunswick’s winding creeks and noticed a long, unnaturally straight waterway cutting from the Turtle River across high ground to the Altamaha River, you’ve not found a Google mapping error. You’ve found one of Georgia’s most ambitious early engineering projects—the Brunswick–Altamaha Canal. The idea of linking Brunswick’s port to the Altamaha River dates to the 18th century. In a pre- railroad age, rivers were the superhighways. The Altamaha already carried trade from Georgia’s interior forests and plantations, and Brunswick’s natural deep-water port gave it a shot at competing with Savannah and Darien. A canal could shorten transport times a...

This article originally appeared in the December 2022 issue of Discover Downtown Brunswick, published by The Brunswick News in Brunswick, Georgia. Story by Josh Dukes This year, we volunteered our home on Wright Square for the Magnolia Garden Club’s Christmas Tour of Homes.   Between bouts of over-the-top decorating and existential dread over cracks, stains, and bruises that we hope won’t be noticed in each room, I couldn’t help but think about the Brunswick in which this house first appeared.   As far as we can tell, our home was completed in 1907 as one of a group of cottages built as rental properties.   This was a great year not only for our home, but for Brunswick as a whole.   The year 1907 is the same year that Brunswick’s streetcars were first announced to an excited city.   Though they were relatively short-lived, our streetcars still resonate as a representation of great growth and opportunity for a city on the rise. Streetcar lines from a 1923 surve...

Josh Dukes is a local historian and co-author of the new book Brunswick: Past & Present , available locally this month from Arcadia Publishing.  These facts gathered from an 1897 Brunswick Times feature on Rev. Williams as he reached his 60 th  birthday.  Portrait of Rev. Williams published by The Brunswick News and restored by Josh Dukes.   Reverend John Williams, circa 1897. Photo restored by Josh Dukes John Williams was born into slavery on Christmas Day 1839 at Howell Point Plantation in Brunswick County, NC.  His mother Julia Ann Moore first named him John Moore, but Moore was her second husband’s name. John assumed his uncle Robert Williams' last name in adulthood.  Julia, young John, and her other 4 children were enslaved at Howell Point to Edward Morse, a pilot on the    Charleston Harbor bar.   Edward Morse's children taught young John to spell a single word – baker - and he prided himself in the early knowledge of that...

This article originally appeared in the January 2025 edition of Discover Downtown, a publication of The Brunswick News.  Story and photo colorizations by Josh Dukes I’ve written a few times about how much downtown Brunswick is hopping these days.  Inevitably someone mentions, “imagine if the Oglethorpe Hotel was still here – just think of what that could be used for now!”  That is of course true, but there are a few other landmarks that Newcastle lost to the wrecking ball as midcentury modern aesthetics took hold in the 1950s.  One jewel at the top of my list of favorite lost spaces is the National Bank of Brunswick building, which once stood at 1509 Newcastle Street.  Bank employees circa 1921. L to R- Myddleton Harris, James Oliver Taylor, John Ralston, E.V. Poole, Elisha Johnson, Harris S Evans, Edgar H Ware. Courtesy of Lisa Taylor The National Bank of Brunswick was organized in 1894, with H. W. Reed serving as the first president and prominent businessman C...