Week 31 – Preserving Heritage – Harrington Project Photos

A handwritten and typewritten document in the archives of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, dated April 2001, gives a list of attendees and a list of photograph descriptions for a new initiative: the Harrington Project. Officially founded in 2002, the project identified the importance of the Harrington neighborhood and sought to record the history of its residents through oral histories and images. Photographs were taken of buildings throughout the area—some still in use, and some not—and were recorded along with names of people who lived in, worked in, or were otherwise associated with them. This collection of photographs in the collections of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society includes such structures as Tony Cuyler’s general store, the St. Andrew Church of God in Christ, and the Harrington School itself. Participants also photographed vacant spaces where buildings had once stood and new residential developments in the area. Although the entire collection of more than thirty images has not yet been entered into the Society’s Online Collections Search, a sample of the images may be viewed here.

Information from the Harrington Project’s documents identify some of its members as Kaye Horton, Pecolia Baisden, Isadora Hunter, and Ginger Miya. Their work helped to present an image of the Harrington neighborhood and its historic places as they appeared in 2002—an appearance that has since sustained much change. Many structures, especially those that were not in use when they were photographed, are now gone. The Harrington School was also slated for demolition, but through an enormous fundraising and restoration effort, today the building is a museum and celebrates its hundredth anniversary. In February, “before and after” photographs of the school building were featured in Elegant Island Living magazine, showcasing the immense amount of work and dedication that brought the building to its current state.