1067 Massey St, Barwick, GA 31720

If you are looking for Mayberry, you'll find it in tiny Barwick. The past is still alive today as residents enjoy a town -- and a sense of community -- that has been little changed over the past hundred years. The historic Sanchez home has been lovingly maintained. A turn-of-the-century Southern farmhouse style home, the house features hardwood floors and a wide central hall known as a shotgun style. From the gracious front porch, visitors enter by the foyer, which is open to the formal living room with its high ceilings and generous windows. Like many classic Southern homes, most of the rooms open into one another. The two bedrooms on the south side of the home share a jack-and-jill bath with a shower. The two bedrooms on the north side both feature expansive closets. A laundry room is located just off the back of the central hallway. The huge country kitchen, sunroom, and family room/dining room are just beyond. Along with central heat and air, the home boasts gas heaters and a whole house attic fan. The completely fenced property is famous for its many varieties of rare, mature camellias as well as myriad fruit trees, some of which have been the subject of study by the University of Georgia. There are also several outbuildings, each of which reveals a bit of the history of Barwick as well as the Sanchez family. Recent additions include a kennel and a pole barn. For the cook, there is a kitchen herb garden beside the back door along with a pleasant patio just outside the white picket fence for enjoying morning coffee and evening quiet. The fenced paddock stretches all the way to Bertie Street, providing plenty of room for a horse. The adjacent properties including the 4400 square foot local treasure Sanchez Hospital and recently planted pecan grove are also available for purchase, adding an additional 1.6 acres to the overall property. In 1902 the town of Barwick, Georgia was established by the Georgia Northern Railroad, which purchased one square mile of property, shaped in one giant circle from the Massey brothers whose plantations sat on each side of the county line. The railroad company built the rail line and laid out the streets in a not-quite east/west, north/south grid pattern. They lured residents to the area, among them, a noted physician by the name of S.E. Sanchez, Sr. Dr. Sanchez bought up several pieces of land, built his home at the corner of Sanchez and Massey Streets and built a two-story tuberculosis sanitarium downtown. Dr. Sanchez, Sr. passed away in 1945, but his namesake and son, also a doctor, continued the family tradition. On the property across Sanchez Street from his home, he built a state-of-the-art 4400 square foot medical hospital/clinic in 1948. The Sanchez hospital gained quite a bit of fame and renown. According to the locals, people would drive long distances to be treated by Dr. Sanchez and his state-of-the-art facility, camping out overnight, cars lining either side of Massey Street, waiting to be seen on a first-come-first-served basis. Current residents of Barwick enjoy a slower pace of life and a tremendous sense of community. Enjoy lunch at the Dixie Cup Cafe downtown, or check into the local co-op for hardware and feed. When the pecans are ready to harvest, walk them down to the Barwick Pecan Company where the friendly staff will be happy to shell your pecans for you, or purchase them from you outright. Enjoy a holiday party with the Chamber of Commerce at the Barwick Community House, complete with Santa's arrival on the fire truck, courtesy of the Volunteer Fire Department. If you crave a bit of the idyllic "rocking chair on the front porch and visiting with your neighbors over a glass of iced tea" life, then what are you waiting for? Barwick has that and so much more. The Sanchez House is waiting.