This area, identified on an 1884 Georgia map as Blanchard's Crossing, was a stop on a narrow-gauge railway that ran to Kingsboro, Georgia, just beyond Cataula. When the Central of Georgia Railroad was built in the 1880's, a station was constructed on the west side of Fortson Road, with Thomas Willis Fortson named as station agent. Near the station stood a general store run by the Fortson family, originally located across the road from the railroad station. Built of wood, it burned in the early 1900's, after which a brick general store was constructed on the west side of Fortson Road. This building also housed the Fortson, Georgia, post office. Thomas Willis Fortson, son of Thomas Daniel Fortson, who built the Fortson House, served as postmaster, station agent, and store operator, and later his son Luther Getzen Fortson assumed these duties. The general store and post office were a central part of the Fortson community, serving as a meeting place where local people stopped to tell stories. After Getzen's death in 1963, the store closed and the post office moved several miles down Fortson Road to an area known as Nankipooh. The structure then remained vacant for several decades until, in 2015, Columbus Quarry, Historic Columbus, and Dr. and Mrs. Mark R. Fortson undertook a collaborative effort to clean the site, secure the remains of the building, and create an interpretive area to tell its story.