Passing Through White City
Driving down Highway 78 most may not even notice that they are diving through the old community of White City. Modern-day street maps, like the Chamber of Commerce’s street map and general maps of Georgia, exclude White City. However the old town still exists on digital maps provided by Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and Ask.com Maps.
Local history books scarcely reflect on White City – it can be expected that the community did not have a post office, judicial courthouse or school. Even the origin of the name is unknown. Recent history does reveal that the center of town was at Highway 78 and South Baggett Road at a gas station.
Described as Douglas County Historic Resource DO-105, the White City gas station is of English Vernacular Revival design built sometime during the 1940s with at least one gas pump. This spot on Highway 78 would have been a popular gas-and-go location prior to the days of the today’s bustling Interstate 20.
Today the gas station is known as the Douglasville Monument Company owned and operated by Gene Fleeman. With to talking Fleeman, he spoke of stopping at the gas station, and occasionally sleeping the night in the car, on his travels to parts of West Georgia in the 1950s. Fleeman also said that the building, according to a neighbor who he purchased the property from, had been built almost 145 years ago.
Fleeman’s account of the gas station’s origin was that it served teenagers to buy drinks from a soda fountain and acted as a sandwich shop. Fannie Mae Davis’ book tells us that the first soda fountain in Douglasville was installed at the Hudson & Selman Drug Company in the 1890s. Maybe in the 1860s the gas station could have been a local saloon thriving on the weary thirsts of local travelers from Villa Rica or Atlanta.
The sandwich shop may have preceded the gas station in the 1940s instead of the 1860s. The building originally did not have a restroom, which Fleeman later installed during a restoration which included running water. He told of a fire that had happened prior to him purchasing the property.
But Fleeman was not done telling his story. Local folklore suggests that the building had a more secretive purpose that would cater to travelers. As the sun dipped beneath the Georgia Pine horizon, travelers would make their way up to the tightly spaced attic to buy a “nightly companion”. Could it be true that this old gas station was a whore house at one time?
Across the street lives Charles Ellis who builds street rods in his garage. Ellis could shed little light on the community, however he did say that when he moved to Douglas County thirty years ago the gas station no longer had a pump. Sometime between 1950 and 1970 the gas station was forced to close. Was it because of leaky underground tanks, bad business or gas shortages?
Another oddity in this story is that the town of White City does not appear on any historical map of Georgia from 1799 to 1970 (or present day for that matter). A 1915 map made by the Hudgins Company shows a whistle stop before the Winston depot on the Southern Railroad. The whistle stop was named Barnes and the train would have only stopped by request with the presence of a flag at the small station. Is it possible the Barnes whistle stop and White City are one and the same?
The unfortunate conclusion to this story is Gene Fleeman is considering selling the property this year. He would like to buyer to consider the historic value of the building before deciding any future prospects. The White City gas station is not eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Losing this wonderful small piece of unexplored history would be losing a piece of not only a part of Douglas County ’s history, but part of Georgia ’s history as well. If you have any information about White City or the gas station, please feel free to comment below. If you blink while driving through White City, well then you just missed it.
