Part Two,

accompanying Abandoned, but reimagined: Radium Springs Club, South Georgia

The Radium Springs Club in Albany, Georgia, officially opened its doors in 1927, two years after Barron Collier purchased the property. But the story of the land begins well before that, rooted in the vision of an earlier owner.

In 1916, the property belonged to a farmer named Bubba Hickey, who saw more in the land than fields and pasture. Determined to create something greater, he began transforming the area into a destination. His first additions were a country store and a restaurant large enough to seat 100 guests—an ambitious undertaking for the time. Soon, picnic grounds spread across the property, a dance floor brought music and movement, and even a bowling alley offered entertainment to visitors. What had once been purely agricultural land was becoming a place where people gathered.

At the heart of the property lay the spring itself, and Hickey turned his attention there as well. He began clearing rocks from the pool, gradually revealing its natural beauty, and expanded it by constructing a small dam. With each improvement, the spring became more inviting, its clear waters emerging as the centerpiece of the land.

The spring’s outflow, known as the spring run, carried water from the pool into the nearby Flint River. Hickey reshaped this channel, widening and deepening it to control its flow. Where the run met the river, a pedestrian bridge was built—later known as Spring Run Bridge. Equipped with a spillway, it subtly raised the water level, further refining the landscape Hickey had begun to shape.

By the time Barron Collier acquired the property in 1925, much of the foundation had already been laid. What followed was not the beginning, but the continuation of a vision that had started nearly a decade earlier.

Today, little of that early landscape remains. Beyond Radium Springs Gardens, only the reconstructed Spring Run Bridge and a maintained walkway along the spring run endure.

Radium Springs Lift Station

Just below the confluence of the spring run and the river, beside Spring Run Bridge, stands the Radium Springs lift station. It is distinguished by a mural painted in 2022 by artist Chris Johnson.

March 27, 2026

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