Welcome to Monroe’s AROUND TOWN GALLERY! A history walk showcasing the the downtown area.
Vaughn Buggy Shop
George Lucious “Bose” Vaughn was born in Walton County in 1869. By the late 1800s, he was working for the John L. Smith Buggy Company in Atlanta, helping build buggies for dignitaries such as Governor Henry McDaniel and Senator Alfred Colquitt, both Monroe natives. Sometime in the 1890s, G.L. Vaughn had started his own buggy and wagon business. Soon after the turn of the century, Mr. Vaughn moved his business back home to Monroe and, sometime between 1901 and 1909, opened it here on the corner of Highland Avenue and Wayne Street.
In 1939, with the premiere of Gone with the Wind, Mr. Vaughn was contacted by the son of his former employer, John L. Smith, who enquired about two buggies that Vaughn had helped build for former Gov. McDaniel. These were to be used in the premiere festivities. As it turned out, Mr. Vaughn knew that Gov. McDaniel’s son-in-law had the buggies. Vaughn bought the buggies, repaired and repainted them, and resold them to Mr. Smith, who used one in the Gone with the Wind parade.
By the 1940s, buggies were a thing of the past, and Mr. Vaughn had branched out into other businesses such as furniture repair and refinishing. In 1942, he moved his business to his home on the Boulevard.
Bose Vaughn passed away in 1951, taking with him an era of Monroe history.
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