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The Ambition and Legacy of the Brunswick–Altamaha Canal

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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...
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Clang, Clang, Clang, Went the Brunswick Trolley

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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...
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Father John Williams, Formerly Enslaved, Fought for Freedom and his Congregation

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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...
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Banking on Downtown: The National Bank of Brunswick

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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...
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The 1898 Georgia Hurricane comes to Brunswick

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As we sit here readying ourselves for another tropical system (Debby, please be kind to us), I thought I'd do some digging into the one storm that beats all the others in Brunswick's long history. Let's keep it that way, shall we? The 1898 Georgia Hurricane was a major hurricane that made official landfall at Cumberland Island and to this day is the strongest on record in the state. It was first observed on Sept 29 and it maintained a general northwest track throughout its duration.  Peak winds hit 130 mph on Oct 2 as it made landfall on Cumberland Island, causing record storm surge flooding. The hurricane caused heavy damage throughout the region, and killed at least 179 people.    Newcastle Street looking south from Monck - Marshes of Glynn Libraries Special Collections The impact was most severe in Brunswick, where a 16 ft storm surge was recorded. This has sometimes been referred to (especially in old sources) as a "tidal wave," but storm surge is caused by th...
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What's In A Name Part 3: Old Town Continued

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This story originally appeared in Discover Downtown Brunswick, a publication of The Brunswick News, in the October 2023 edition. Last month, we discussed Brunswick’s old town streets moving south from Gloucester. For this final installment (for now) of What’s In A Name, let’s move from Bay Street to the eastern boundary of the Oglethorpe Plan. The Duke of Newcastle by William Hoare, circa 1750   Bay is a universal name in many cities for a street running along the waterfront.   Charleston, for example, has an East Bay street on east side of the peninsula. Brunswick’s Bay Street is on the west.   It is important to note that the north part of the current Bay Street footprint overtook part of Oglethorpe Street.   A 1960s-era revitalization of rundown Bay Street storefronts, road widening, and Port enlargements were all at play here. The next street to the east is Oglethorpe Street, named for General James Edward Oglethorpe (1696-1785). Oglethorpe was the founder of t...
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