Photograph of W. A. Neely's blacksmith shop in Laurinburg, North Carolina

A black-and-white photograph of W. A. Neely's blacksmith shop. The photograph depicts two clapboard structures. On the right is a large, two story, gable roof, house-shaped building with horizontal clapboards. The building is shown from the broad side with four twelve pane windows for each story and an entryway to the right. On the far right side of the building is a set of wooden stairs with a railing leading up to a second story door. The building has a single chimney at the center of the wood shingled roof. At the bottom of the exterior steps is a wooden hitching post with two large, wooden wagon wheels resting against it. The smaller shed-like building on the left is a one story, gable roof building with vertical clapboards and a covered porch. The building has a centrally oriented, twelve pane window on the side and another at the back. Hanging over the side window are six pieces of square white material, affixed roughly in a circle. Standing mostly in front of the larger building is a group of fifteen men and three women. Most of the men are standing among a number of horse drawn buggies parked in front of the building. The men are mostly wearing suits with derby hats, flat caps, and Stetson hats, while one man at the center is wearing overalls, a long sleeve shirt, and a work cap. Two of the women are seated in a buggy at the center of the image while the third woman stands to the right of them. The two women seated in the buggy are dressed in Edwardian style day dresses and wide band picture hats. The woman on the right is wearing a light tone, plain, long sleeve dress with the sleeves rolled up. In front of the parked buggies is a dirt road lined with a ditch. The ditch is covered with wooden boards just in front of the two buildings, providing a narrow bridge between the road and the dirt packed area where the buggies are parked. The side of the ditch is littered with debris, wood scrapes, cans, paper, a crate, and a half buried barrel. In the left foreground is the base of a utility pole strung with cables that run along the top left corner of the image. Visible in the background on the left are other house-shaped buildings, trees, and two utility poles. The broadside of a white church is visible on the left. The photograph has an even, thin, white border and is mounted to a brownish-gray matboard backing. Faded brown handwritten text at the bottom center and right reads [W.A. Neely Shop, / Laurinburg, N.C. Jan 1, ‘10]. There are dark tide marks on the left, right, and bottom edges and a surface loss in the top left corner. The back of the image is plain.