Allenhurst, GA

Allenhurst is a small Liberty County city on U.S. 84, west of Hinesville and close to Walthourville. Its boundary is still nearly a circle, a quirk left from a town that grew around a sawmill, not a courthouse. B.H. Allen and Ernest Dunlevie built the timber business that gave the community its name and shape; the mill company added a store, church, school, doctor, dentist, and employee houses, turning a work camp into a complete little sawmill town.

ATTRMichael Rivera / CC BY-SA 4.0

Some of that company-town layout remains in the Allenhurst Historic District, which includes six original Dunlevie homes. The old mile-long pine walkway is gone, but the tree-lined streets and large moss-draped oaks still make the town's timber past easy to picture. Liberty County schools serve local families, while Hinesville supplies larger errands and the wider work orbit. Allenhurst's local scoop is that the sawmill story is still visible in the street plan, the houses, and the way U.S. 84 splits the town.