Last Store in Parramore is now gone

The end of an era in Jackson County history was marked today as the last surviving store in the old ghost town of Parramore was torn down.

The photograph here shows the old store as it appeared about a month ago. As you can see, it was overgrown and slowly collapsing on its own. It had become a danger and was beyond saving, but it is still sad to see it go.

Parramore was an important river port in Jackson County during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Served by a series of riverboat landings on the Chattahoochee River, the community developed on the high ground back from the river. At its height, Parramore was home to four or five stores, a post office, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, grist mill, saw mill and several large turpentine operations.

The town began to fade when steamboat traffic slowed on the Chattahoochee River and the end of the paddlewheel riverboat era during the 1940s spelled the final death of the little commercial district. People moved away and the buildings were reclaimed by the woods.

Over time, the old stores and structures have disappeared one by one. The store that disappeared today was the last of the standing structures in the main area of the old community. A few outlying buildings, including a log cabin and a one room school, still survive, but for the most part little remains today to remind modern generations of this once thriving place of business and life.

Parramore comes back to life once each year, on the first Sunday in October, when an annual homecoming is held at Oak Grove Church to remember the once prosperous community.