I often hear from readers who compliment me on a post, but have a bit more information to share with me — a family story, another photograph, or news regarding what I have written. This time I will only mention two of those “shares” that are particularly interesting to me, and they have the city of Macon in common!

First, in relation to some posts on the well-known Macon photographer J. A. Pugh (James Adolphus Pugh, 1833-1887), a reader wrote that

“This is a great article. I’ve just become familiar with it. I am an artist and had the same studio for almost 30 years. The Contemporary Arts Exchange/Macon took over the building in the early 1990s. My studio was the 3rd floor corner, same as the engraving. We had about 20 artists, musicians and writers with studios. The organization came to the end around 2020 when the building was sold to develop apartments.” 

This was news to me! I knew the building still stood when I posted a photo of it, a Google Maps view taken in 2018. The fact that visual artists, writers and musicians made use of that building is something I know J. A. Pugh would have loved. But as to what it is now, I imagine he would not like that very much.

I read in the Macon Telegraph newspaper that Ryan Sanders of Atlanta-based Hephaestus Development was developing what he called the Washington Lofts project. He purchased the Washington Block building (now listed at 582 Mulberry St.) for $1.1 million from a Macon attorney, according to county property tax and state incorporation records. Sanders has finally brought the Washington Lofts to market and they are already sold out. You can see what a wonderful studio space this was with those big windows providing excellent light. The public library was located there as of 1874, leasing the space for about a decade, so Pugh shared one floor with them.

Part of the Macon Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, “the Washington Block has anchored the busy corner of 2nd and Mulberry for over 150 years.” It is “only one of a handful of intact antebellum commercial structures still standing in Georgia.”

Second, at left is a carte-de-visite from my collection, a business card I believe was reproduced from a woodcut, or possibly from a pen and ink drawing. It is a self-portrait made by the artist-photographer E (Eldis) Jay Atwood (1867-1940), working then in Madison, Georgia, where he had first traveled as an itinerant. After returning from South Carolina, Atwood had a photo studio in Madison from late 1893 into 1897, in the former M. L. Richter photography building, though he often returned to Monticello where he’d worked since 1891.

I heard from a grandchild of E. Jay Atwood’s daughter Vera, who sent me more information and photographs of Atwood, and his family. It all began with this reader sending me a portrait photograph of E. Jay Atwood (seen above) that very much resembles the carte-de-visite self-portrait that I had previously posted.

Among the other photographs shared with me is this one taken by E. Jay Atwood of himself and his wife Martha Lula Hickman Atwood (1874-1955), originally from Monticello, Georgia, taken shortly after their marriage, and their move to Winnsboro, South Carolina. They soon moved to Union, South Carolina. There, Atwood was at one point a partner in Atwood & Unger, although he advertised himself singly as a photographer in the Weekly Times Union, from June – September 1893, stating in an October 1st ad that he was “the People’s Photographer.” The couple returned to Monticello, Georgia, just prior to the birth of their first child.

Atwood was multi-talented — a good cook and a musician, and although he played several instruments, he played clarinet as a member of the 3rd Georgia Regiment Band in Madison. He was an inventor, and an artist in many media, including sculpture.

In about 1898, the Atwood family moved to Macon where E. Jay worked with well known photographer T. B. Blackshear (1846-1911) at his gallery on Cotton Avenue. He partnered with Blackshear for about a year (1908), before he bought out photographer A. F. Wildenhain (who returned to Florida) on Cotton Avenue in order to start his own photo business, Atwood Photo Studio.

Vera Atwood (1897-1990) worked for her father as a photo retoucher for at least a year before her marriage to H. Harris Middlebrooks. E. Jay’s brother, Avrill L. Atwood (1873-1941) worked in the photo studio as a photo retoucher as well as other jobs, off and on for several years. He, too, lived the rest of his life in Macon and was a writer, although his obituary does mention photography.

The Atwood family remained in Macon, and Lula Atwood eventually began a business there as a seamstress, working out of the apartment they had moved into, across the hall from the photo studio. The Atwood Photo Studio, Macon, was in business until at least 1935.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know more about this photographer, and I’m interested to hear about living in the historic building that housed a well-known photographer for about twenty years in the 19th century, and a group of artistic people for close to thirty years spanning the 20th into the 21st centuries. I really appreciate hearing from my Readers because they help me further flesh-out these many Georgia photographers. Thank you!

© E. Lee Eltzroth and Hunting & Gathering, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material, or photographs, without written permission from this blog’s author is prohibited. The piece can be re-blogged, and excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to E. Lee Eltzroth and Hunting & Gathering, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.