I surprise myself sometimes – I’ve been thinking of doing paintings of the Patterson, Georgia train depot for at least seven years. My grandmother, Mary Lydia Tabor Lewis, was Station agent there from 1918 til 1968. In 2020, I decided to see what I could do from multiple black and white photos. So here they are, three views: 1953 (reference photo taken by my mother), 1960 (taken by me), and 1970 (photographer unknown). I’m mostly happy with how they came out! An article on my grandmother written by my uncle, Walter Berg, can be found at http://walterberg.homestead.com/MotherInLaw.html.
View 1 – Morning Excursion: Thanks to the folks at the Facebook group, Atlantic Coast Line/Seaboard Air Line Railroads Historical Society, for their help with the color of the railroad cars! Photo from 1953, probably taken by my mother on the morning I joined the kindergarten class for their train excursion to Blackshear. I was 4 1/2 and the teacher invited me to come along. The woman in the very back with the white hair and her hand shading her eyes was my grandmother, station agent for the depot.
View 2 – Walking to the Depot: This is from a 1960 photo I took with my brownie camera – the depot had recently been freshly painted with purple trim and I thought it looked particularly imposing. My grandmother, the station agent, was not happy about the purple.
View 3 – 4 O’Clock in Georgia: The first one I did! This is from a photo on the map of Patterson, probably around 1970. No credit was included for the photographer. I painted it for my aunt who sent me the map brochure, and suggested I paint it, but leave off the telephone pole and add the baggage cart that always sat on the platform. So that’s what I did! If I can locate the photographer, and get permission to use the photo for reference, I’ll repaint with the telephone pole for possible sale.
