Before COVID , there was the Spanish Flu: When Griffin Shut Down in 1918 by Drew Payne President, Griffin-Spalding Historical Society When COVID-19 brought everyday life to a standstill in 2020, most of us had never experienced anything like it. Schools closed, church services were suspended, public gatherings were canceled, and families isolated themselves at home. Yet Griffin had experienced much the same thing 102 years earlier, in the autumn of 1918. As World War I neared its conclusion,...

German Soldiers, Pimentos, and a Griffin Mystery by Drew Payne President, Griffin-Spalding Historical Society Did you know that German prisoners of war were held in Griffin during World War II, around 1944–1945—just down Meriwether Street from our own Bailey-Tebault House? Historical camp listings identify Griffin as the site of a seasonal prisoner-of-war camp associated with Camp Wheeler near Macon. Across Georgia, prisoners helped address wartime labor shortages, including in...

by Drew Payne President, Griffin-Spalding Historical Society A Familiar Griffin House - with Cousins in Texas and Illinois The Wheaton-Collier-Jackson-Sieweke House 636 East College Street Sometimes history comes looking for us. Recently, the owners of a historic home in Highland Park, Texas, outside Dallas, contacted the Griffin- Spalding County Historical Society with an intriguing discovery. Their 1921 Colonial Revival home had architectural cousins in other parts of the country—including...