Ridge, The

The Ridge is a small coastal community about three miles northeast of Darien, Georgia, set on a low sandy ridge between tidewater marsh and swampland. Houses line both sides of the Old Shell Road, most built in the 1880s and 1890s, alongside one wood-framed general store. Early one-and-a-half-story coastal cottages give way to Victorian houses with sawn and turned porch millwork, in late Greek Revival, Italianate, Eastlake and Victorian Eclectic styles. Resident contractor T.A. Bailey built or is credited with several of them. The settlement grew as a summer retreat where sea breezes eased the heat and insects of riverfront cities. Lumber company owners, river pilots, professionals and retired planters built homes here during Darien's timber-port prosperity. The 1885 Shell Road and 1895 railroad encouraged year-round living. Construction slowed after 1900 as the timber trade declined. Live oaks, pines, palmettos and a few picket fences remain part of the setting.