Nearly all of the farm buildings date from the early decades of the 20th century when Ira (Mr. Ira) and Susan Ella (Miss Ella) Ethridge ran the farm. At that time Johnson Mill Road ran through the middle of the farmstead and the more important buildings are to be found along the old line of this road.
At its junction with Ethridge Road close to the Shields-Ethridge House stands the commissary, one of the most distinctive and controversial features of the sharecropping era. Nearby, the blacksmith’s shop and the gristmill – two of the busiest places on the farm – face each other across the old line of Johnson Mill Road. Down-slope, well away from the family home, stands the cotton gin with its associated buildings; these structures were widely spaced to allow wagons waiting to deliver their loads of raw cotton to gather on the slope above the gin.
Away from the road, buildings associated with farm livestock – mules, cows, pigs, and chickens – are grouped around a fenced yard. Other buildings including a garage, a wheat house, and a teacher’s house were added over the years and make this one of the most diverse collections of farm buildings in Georgia.