Thanksgiving In Social Circle

Yesterday evening, Mary and I met my folks, my sister and brother-in-law, and their little girl (our niece) Stella at the Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle for an absolutely wonderful time with family and a really delicious Thanksgiving dinner, southern-style of course. :)

Social Circle, a quaint little town in south Walton County, is located on GA 11 just 10 miles (16 km) south of the Walton County seat of Monroe and approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of Downtown Atlanta. If you are coming from Atlanta, take I-20 to Exit 98 (GA 11/Monroe/Monticello), turn left, and Social Circle will be just 4 miles (6 km) to the north.

The Blue Willow Inn is in an old southern-style mansion reminiscent of the fictitious Tara plantation in Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone With The Wind”. Ms. Mitchell herself was a frequent visitor to Social Circle and, in 1922 actually courted her first husband, Berrien “Red” Upshaw, at that particular house, which Upshaw’s family owned at the time. Nowadays, the Inn is known more for its excellent southern-style food, of which I am now one of its proud advocates. Not only will you enjoy the food, but you will also enjoy the ambiance of the place and the courteous “southern hospitality”.

Now, let’s go to the “roadgeek” part…

At around 6 PM last night, we departed from Loganville on US 78/GA 10 to the GA 10 Business (West Spring Street/Monroe) exit and went through Downtown Monroe, where we picked up GA 11 and proceeded to Social Circle. By the time we got going, it was dark, so it didn’t lend itself to any good roadgeek photo or video footage IMHO. This was the first time in 9 years that I have traveled that stretch of highway, the last time being to go to Monroe for a funeral of a distant cousin that my mother was close to during her childhood.

My dad rode with us on the way over there and I tended to rattle off some road history (and even some railroad history) that I knew regarding Monroe and Walton County. He's always sworn I should’ve been a civil engineer, but I prefer just being a "roadgeek". (I did consider civil engineering at one time, but settled on computer science instead.)

Before the completion of GA 316 in 1995, US 78/GA 10 was the main Atlanta-to-Athens highway, and from 1965 through 1988, most of the highway between the east end of the Stone Mountain Freeway (originally the Stone Mountain By-Pass) and Athens was a typical 2-lane road.

Around 1965, the Georgia DOT opened a 4-mile (6 km) 4-lane divided limited access Monroe By-Pass, rerouting US 78 accordingly. This was also designated GA 10 By-Pass and remained so until the mid-1980’s, when GA 10 through Monroe was redesignated GA 10 Business and GA 10 was rerouted on US 78.

Around 1969, the remainder of the Stone Mountain Freeway (GA 410) was opened between the current Memorial Drive exit (Exit 5) and US 29/GA 8 just northeast of Decatur. US 78 was rerouted onto this new alignment accordingly and has stayed there since.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, US 78/GA 10 was widened between Stone Mountain and Athens, mostly to 4-lanes with a middle left turn lane, but the stretch between Loganville and Athens was widened to a 4-lane divided highway. The last part of US 78/GA 10 between Atlanta and Athens to be widened was completed in Loganville in 1988, with a brand new stretch built on the western side of Loganville at the Gwinnett/Walton County line. The original stretch from the county line to GA 20 is now known as Logan Road.

GA 11 is a highway that stretches from the North Carolina line in Union County through Gainesville, Macon, and eventually the Florida line in Echols County. Monroe and Social Circle are on a “standalone” northern stretch that runs from US 129 in Jefferson back to US 129 in Gray.Besides this stretch and a stretch between southern Bibb County (where US 129 and US 41) split and Hawkinsville (Pulaski County), GA 11 shares pavement with US 129 throughout the rest of Georgia. In Berrien County, it shares a brief stretch of pavement with US 82/GA 520 (South Georgia Parkway/Corridor Z).

From Monroe to Social Circle, the northern portion of the shortline Great Walton Railroad parallels GA 11, crossing it just south of Monroe and again just north of Social Circle. The railroad itself ties into the main CSX line at Social Circle. This is a stretch of track that originally ran from Social Circle to Gainesville via Winder and Braselton. The track between Monroe and Gainesville was abandoned and removed nearly 60 years ago.

Mary and I enjoyed Social Circle so much that we swore that we’ll come back to Social Circle, preferably during the daytime, and check it out further, plus even do a little “roadgeeking”. :)

That’s it for now. Thanks for visiting, enjoy the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend, and please come back often.