Lathemtown Historic District, Sam and Mae Orr Store, 11798 Cumming Highway (State Route 20), Lathemtown

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-R. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Sam and Mae Orr Store is located at Cumming Highway/State Route 20 (SR 20) in Cherokee County, Georgia. The resource sits on the south side of the highway and stands just west of Matt Lathem Road. The store is located at latitude: longitude: This point was taken from the center of the Sam and Mae Orr Store. It was obtained on September 10, using Google Earth There is no restriction on its release to the public.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-R. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Sam and Mae Orr Store is a contributing resource to the Lathemtown Historic District. The early twentieth-century store supports Lathemtown s significance as an intact, rural historic district. The store stands as a representation of the agricultural community s continued growth and development during the first half of the twentieth century. See the Lathemtown Historic District (HABS No. GA-2445) overview for further discussion of overall district significance. Historians: Marvin Brown, M.A., Senior Architectural Historian, AECOM; Sarah Potere, Architectural Historian, AECOM Report Completed October

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-R. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is implementing plans to widen State Route 20 from two to six lanes between Scott Road (near Canton) and North Corners Parkway (near Cumming). The project corridor spans approximately miles and falls within Cherokee and Forsyth Counties. As a result of this roadway expansion, all or part of the Sam and Mae Orr Store will be demolished. Mitigation efforts were explored and a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was developed between the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Georgia Department of Transportation, and the Georgia State Historic LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, SAM AND MAE ORR STORE HABS No. GA-2445-R (Page 2) Preservation Officer.

This Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation (historical narrative report and large format photography) was prepared in accordance with the stipulations of the MOA. Description: The frame building stands one-story tall and is three-bays wide at its front (south) facade. It rests on a concrete block pier foundation. A front-gable roof tops the building and is clad in standing-seam metal with exposed rafter tails. It is fronted by a stepped parapet wall which is clad in horizontal weatherboards at its ends and vertical weatherboards at its center. A three-bay, shed-roof porch extends from the building. Capped with standing-seam metal, the appendage is supported by four replacement wood posts, which are plain except for simple molded caps at their top.

They sit on a modern poured-concrete foundation. The building s cladding beneath the porch has been covered or entirely replaced by synthetic siding, unlike the remainder of the store s facades which continue to display original weatherboards (Figure 3 and Figure 4). A centrally placed doorway rests beneath the porch and holds a replacement fiberglass unit. Fixed, sixteen-light, square windows flank either side of the doorway. The building s secondary facades are largely overgrown with vegetation, but do not appear to retain notable architectural features or additional openings. History: According to Joyce Milford Hutchins (born when her mother Cleo Heard Milford was a teenager in the she helped out in the little white store next to the mule barn.

1 Joyce did not identify who ran the store then; tax records assign the building a construction date, but no name. She recalled that later it became the Orr s clothing and fabric store, which she frequented with her mother: I remember when Mr. Sam Orr sold sewing items and material in the store. My mom and I would go and buy new material and pick out patterns and thread for our new dresses. Mother made many of our dresses and also 1 Cleo s father, Joel Heard, purchased the mule barn in the from Bud Turner. Joel and his brother, Bud Heard, ran it. The barn, which almost touched the west side of the store, no longer stands. Mary Helen Cissell, Living, Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown (Orange, GA: Orange United Methodist Women, which includes a historic photograph of the store and barn.

LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, SAM AND MAE ORR STORE HABS No. GA-2445-R (Page 3) a lot of quilts. In Mom s day, a girl had to learn how to quilt when she was growing up. She had to have a number of quilts in her hope chest. Sometimes, Mother made quilts out of the cloth from sample books that Sam had in the store. She always considered sewing a necessity .2 Sam and Mae Orr acquired the store in the mid-1950s. Charles Orr (born recalled in My parents were Sam Orr from Cherokee County and my mother was Mae Pirkle from Forsyth County. My father owned a small store here in Lathemtown right next to where Bud Heard s Barn used to be. It is still standing. It was a clothing store, Orr Sales Company, a nice business. Daddy also had what they called a rolling store.

He sold his stuff right off the truck to other stores in the area. Right on the spot sales! Mother stayed here in the store and he worked on the road three days a week and then on Fridays they would go to Atlanta to buy goods. My dad sold a lot of fabric, cloth, men s shirts and underclothing. He didn t sell shoes or overalls. He was one of the first to have knit clothing. He had a world of bolts of knit cloth. Women did a lot sewing back then and they came from everywhere to buy it. Dad started the store in about and took cancer in Hubert Samuel Sam Orr was born in in Cherokee County s Cross Roads district, in which Lathemtown is located.

He and Mae Pirkle married in or In he was working as a tenant farmer in the county, and he and Mae were raising four children.4 Sam died in Mae, who was born in died in They are buried in the Orange Methodist Church Cemetery in Lathemtown.5 2 Cissell, Living, Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown, 85. 3 Cissell, Living, Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown, 4 U.S. Bureau of the Census, and Federal Censuses. 5 Sam Orr, Obituary, Atlanta Constitution, April 24, accessed June Mae Orr, Obituary, Atlanta Constitution, February 1, accessed June LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, SAM AND MAE ORR STORE HABS No. GA-2445-R (Page 4)

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-R. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Atlanta Constitution. Sam Orr. Obituary. April 24, Accessed June Mae Orr. Obituary. February 1, Accessed June terms=Mae%20Odessa&match=1. Cissell, Mary Helen. Living Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown. Orange, GA: Orange United Methodist Church, United States Bureau of the Census. United States Federal Census. Accessed June-August https://www.ancestry.com/. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, SAM AND MAE ORR STORE HABS No. GA-2445-R (Page 5) Supplemental Materials 1. Figures Figure 1: Sam and Mae Orr Store District Locator Map LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, SAM AND MAE ORR STORE HABS No. GA-2445-R (Page 6) Georgia GIO State Imagery September Figure 2: Sam and Mae Orr Store Site Map. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, SAM AND MAE ORR STORE HABS No.

GA-2445-R (Page 7) Figure 3: Detail of Store parapet. View looking southwest. (Photograph by Sarah Potere, July LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, SAM AND MAE ORR STORE HABS No. GA-2445-R (Page 8) Figure 4: Oblique detail of Store, north (front) and west (side) facades. View looking southeast. (Photograph by Sarah Potere, July