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The Midtown skyline, seen here from Piedmont Park, reflects the neighborhood's dramatic growth. Midtown is the second-largest business district in Atlanta.
Photograph by Daniel Mayer
Sections of Peachtree Street, Atlanta's primary thoroughfare, retained a rural character well into the late nineteenth century.
The Wimbish House is one of the last grand homes remaining on Peachtree Street. It was built in 1898 and designed by noted Atlanta architect W.T. Downing.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, Midtown became a haven for Atlanta's counterculture. Here, young residents of the neighborhood can be seen lounging at a local hangout in 1968.
Members of the Southern Element Flag Corps march down Peachtree Street in 1994 during the city's annual gay pride parade. A chapter of the Gay Liberation Front opened in Atlanta in 1971 and organized the city's first pride parade from 7th Street to Piedmont Park.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Atlanta's Fox Theatre has seen more than $20 million in restoration projects since coming under the ownership of the nonprofit organization, Atlanta Landmarks, in 1975. The Fox was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
The city of Dalton, founded as Cross Plains in 1837, is the seat of Whitfield County. Known as the carpet capital of the world, Dalton and the surrounding region produce most of the nation's tufted carpets.
Courtesy of Dalton Convention and Visitors Bureau
An aerial photograph, taken in 1890, shows the north end of Dalton, the capital of Whitfield County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # wtf025.
Located in Dalton, Whitfield County's second courthouse, pictured circa 1907, was built in 1891 to replace a wooden structure burned by Union troops during the Civil War. The second courthouse was used until 1960, when it was demolished.
Courtesy of Georgia Info, Digital Library of Georgia.
Cotton farmers converge on Hamilton Street in Dalton, circa 1900. Agriculture was the predominant industry in the Dalton area until the end of the nineteenth century, when farming was largely supplanted by the textile industry.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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Chenille bedspreads hang on a line in Dalton, where in 1895 resident Catherine Evans Whitener revived the craft of hand tufting. The resulting cottage industry for the production of chenille goods is credited as the origin of Dalton's renowned carpet industy.
Courtesy of Dalton Convention and Visitors Bureau
Downtown Dalton, the seat of Whitfield County, is pictured in the 1950s. In the years following World War II (1941-45), the city experienced an economic boom with the growth of its carpet industry.
Courtesy of Sherry Cady
The headquarters of World Carpets, pictured in 1969, featured a waterfall on its Morris Street side. World Carpets was founded in Dalton in 1954 by husband and wife Shaheen Shaheen and Piera Barbaglia.
From World Carpets: The First Thirty Years, by S. Shaheen
Downtown Dalton in the twenty-first century features numerous attractions, including shopping and cultural events. The city is located in Whitfield County, eighty miles north of Atlanta.
Courtesy of Dalton Convention and Visitors Bureau
Prater's Mill, located ten miles northeast of Dalton, is a historic water-powered grist mill built around 1850. The mill offers tours and hosts an annual country fair.
Courtesy of UGA Archway Partnership
Hamilton Memorial Hospital, pictured circa 1930, was built in Dalton in 1918 during the influenza pandemic of that year.
Courtesy of Crown Gardens and Archives
Streetscape of Dalton, the seat of Whitfield County, taken in the 1940s.
Courtesy of Sherry Cady
The Glascock County Courthouse in Gibson was built in 1919 and remodeled in 1942. An extensive renovation of the interior was completed in 1973.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Comprising ten acres, Springvale Park is the centerpiece of the Inman Park neighborhood, which was established in the late 1880s. In 1903 Inman Park founder Joel Hurt hired landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to improve the park aesthetically.
Photograph by Ted Bazemore
Atlanta's first planned garden suburb, Inman Park was envisioned as an oasis for the city's wealthy citizens. After a period of decline, the neighborhood underwent an extensive restoration, beginning in the 1970s.
Photograph by Ted Bazemore
The Trolley Barn in Inman Park was the terminus for Atlanta's first electric streetcar line, which ran west to downtown. The barn was the repair depot for the streetcars. Today the building is used for community events.
Photograph by Ted Bazemore
In 1969 Robert Griggs purchased and restored this Queen Anne-style house on Euclid Avenue, thereby launching the Inman Park restoration movement.
Photograph by Ted Bazemore
The Beaux-Arts style Callan Castle (1902-4) was built in Inman Park for Coca-Cola Company founder Asa Candler.
Photograph by Ted Bazemore
The town that is now Talking Rock, in Pickens County, was originally part of the Cherokee Nation. Today, the tiny town claims fewer than 100 residents.
Photograph by Pam Brannon
The modern town of Talking Rock, in Pickens County, grew up around the railroad during the late nineteenth century. The town incorporated in 1883.
Photograph by Pam Brannon
This old hotel in Talking Rock is a remnant from the town's era of prosperity. Before the turn of the twentieth century, Talking Rock boomed with the arrival of the railroad, the growth of the marble industry, and the thriving commerce of a factory, mills, cotton gins, and stores.
Courtesy of Robert Scott Davis
Ludville Academy, pictured circa 1930, was built in the community of Ludville in 1877 and ten years later moved to Talking Rock, where it housed the first high school in Pickens County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pck059-82.
Manchester, incorporated in 1909, was named for the industrial city in England. Although it is not the county seat, Manchester is the largest town in Meriwether County.
Photograph by Jim Corley
The Callaway Mills textile plant was built in Manchester by Fuller E. Callaway in the early 1900s, and the annual company picnic was held every July 15, Callaway's birthday. Men are shown barbecuing pigs in preparation for the picnic.
Courtesy of Troup County Archives, Nix-Price Collection.
Manchester native Stuart Woods is a successful popular-fiction writer. His first novel, Chiefs (1981), is set in the fictional town of Delano, which shares many similarities with Manchester.
Photograph by Mark Coggins
Signs above the doors at a railroad station in Manchester (Meriwether County), pictured in 1944, read "Colored Men" and "Colored Waiting Room," indicating segregated facilities.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-USF3301-001172-M4.
An aerial view of Callaway Mills in Manchester.
Courtesy of Troup County Archives, LaGrange, Callaway Educational Association Collection.
The town of Flowery Branch is located on the shores of Lake Lanier in north Georgia. The name Flowery Branch is the translation of the Cherokee word Anaguluskee, the town's original name.
Image from G. DAWSON
In this photograph, dated 1911, workers are installing waterworks along Main Street in Flowery Branch. The town, about twelve miles from Gainesville, was incorporated in 1983.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The old Southern Railway depot in Flowery Branch was restored and converted to a community center in the 1970s. The Flowery Branch Museum is housed in the railroad car beside the depot.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hal219.
Downtown Plains is part of the attraction for tourists visiting the area. Tourism is the main industry for Plains today, but the area has primarily been a farming community for most of its history.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
This historic postcard shows Main Street in downtown Plains in 1905. At the time, cotton farming was the largest local enterprise.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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Jimmy Carter's boyhood home and farm in Plains, where the family grew peanuts, are managed today by the National Park Service.
Photograph from National Park Service
Jimmy Carter waves from the engine of the SAM Shortline Excursion Train at the depot in Plains. The vintage train runs from Archery to Cordele, with stops in Plains, Americus, Leslie, and the Georgia Veterans State Park.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
In Plains Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, where a large crowd usuallly gathers to attend the class.
Courtesy of National Park Service
Pelham, in Mitchell County, was incorporated in 1881 and named for a Civil War soldier.
Photograph by Greg Loyd
The Hand Trading Company was the largest mercantile store in southwest Georgia in the early twentieth century. Pictured in 1918, the four-story retail emporium featured nearly 100,000 feet of floor space.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # mit022.
Located just outside the Pelham city limits, WABW-TV, Channel 14, is a full-power television station and a repeater of Georgia Public Broadcasting. The station's UHF tower broadcasts its signal as far south as Florida and well north of Albany.
Photograph by Greg Loyd
An example of the Plantation Plain style of architecture, the Lamar-Blanchard house was built in 1823 by Peter Lamar, one of the founders of Lincolnton. Today, the structure serves as a Welcome Center.
Courtesy of Lincolnton-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce
Until it closed in 1996, Price's Store was one of the oldest authentic general stores still in operation in Georgia. Located off Double Branches Road in Lincolnton, the store opened in 1897.
Courtesy of Lincolnton-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce
The four-acre park, located on Lumber Street in Lincolnton, is the primary project of the Lincoln County Historical Society. Several nineteenth-century structures are preserved on the site.
Image from J Stephen Conn
Clarks Hill Lake is close to downtown Lincolnton, in Lincoln County. The lake, which occurs near the confluence of the Savannah River and the Little River, is the second-largest reservoir east of the Mississippi River.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
William Henry Braselton, the first mayor of Braselton, built this house in the early 1900s. Today it is used as Braselton's town hall, and the structure is rumored to be haunted.
Image from Chris Pruitt
The headstones of William H. and Susan F. Braselton, the founders of the town of Braselton, are located in the Braselton family graveyard off Jesse Cronic Road.
Courtesy of Britney Compton
The Chateau Elan Resort and Winery in Braselton is a major tourist attraction northeast of Atlanta.
Image from Bruce Tuten
The bell that once rang for the Braselton High School, from 1920 to 1957, now sits on the grounds of Braselton's town hall.
Courtesy of Britney Compton
Road Atlanta, a 2.54-mile, 12-turn road-racing course in Braselton, is a major tourist attraction in Jackson County. The venue, part of the Panoz Motor Sports Group, offers a variety of motor-sport events, including sports car, motorcycle, and kart racing.
Image from Osajus Photography
The Florence Marina State Park, about sixteen miles west of Lumpkin, is situated at the northern end of Lake Walter F. George. The park is one of many attractions in the area.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Moye
Brigadier general Clement Anselm Evans, a Confederate war hero who later became a Methodist minister, was born and reared in Lumpkin. The Evans home was built circa 1835.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Moye
The Bedingfield Inn, pictured before its restoration in 1965, was built in the antebellum era, when Lumpkin served as a stagecoach stop. Restoring the inn became the first small-town community preservation project in Georgia.
Courtesy of Stewart County Historical Commission
The Pike County Courthouse, designed in the Romanesque revival and colonial revival styles, was built in Zebulon in 1895. It is the county's third courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workers load logs for transport at a sawmill in Pike County, circa 1910. The timber industry continues to be an important economic activity in Pike County, which was created by the state legislature in 1822.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pik001.
The Newton County Courthouse rises over downtown Covington, known as both "the city of beautiful homes" and as "a full-service city." The city supports an active Main Street program, which revitalized the historic downtown and created new economic opportunity for Covington residents.
Image from Neal Wellons
A monument in downtown Covington reads: "In loving and grateful memory of those citizens of Newton County who gave their lives in the defense of our country."
Photograph by Kate Howard, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Cast members of the television series In the Heat of the Night pose during the filming of an episode in downtown Covington, circa 1994. From left, Denise Nicholas (Harriet DeLong), Carroll O'Connor (Sheriff Bill Gillespie), and Carl Weathers (Chief Hampton Forbes).
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Tunnel Hill, a city in Whitfield County, was named for the 1,477-foot railroad tunnel exacavated through the Chetoogeta Ridge in 1848-49. The city served in 1864 as a winter camp for General Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate troops during the Civil War.
Photograph by Ethan Geer
The Whitfield County Courthouse, located in Dalton, was completed in 2006. Designed in the modern style, the structure incorporates the previous courthouse, which was built on the site in 1961.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Crown Cotton Mill No. 2, located on Chattanooga Avenue in Dalton, is pictured in the late 1920s. Established in 1884, Crown Cotton Mill brought much-needed economic activity to Whitfield County and by 1916 employed 1,000 workers.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wtf014b.
Mill houses line a street in Dalton, circa 1930. The carpet and textile industries in the city began in the late nineteenth century with the tufted bedspreads of Catherine Evans Whitener and by the 1940s had developed into a mechanized industry in Whitfield County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wtf013a.
The Wayne County Courthouse, designed in the Romanesque revival style, was completed in 1903. Located in Jesup, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Kayakers paddle down a stretch of the Altamaha River. The river played an integral role in the county's timber industry during the early nineteenth century as a means for transporting logs to the coast.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
Hickory Hill, pictured circa 1910, was the home of noted senator and publisher Thomas E. Watson. Located in Thomson, the historic home, renovated to its 1920s appearance, is open to the public for tours by appointment.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
cob706.
The McDuffie County Courthouse, located in Thomson, was built in 1872. Major renovations to the courthouse, the county's first, were made in 1934 and 1970.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Rock House, built in 1785 near the Quaker community of Wrightsborough in McDuffie County, is considered to be the oldest standing building in Georgia with its original architecture intact.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Belle Meade Hunt, established in Thomson in 1966, is an annual fox hunt that begins with the "blessing of the hounds" in early November and continues with weekly hunts through March.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The gold-topped Price Memorial Hall, on the campus of North Georgia College and State University, rises above Dahlonega, the seat of Lumpkin County. The site of a gold rush in 1828-29, Dahlonega today attracts tourists interested in both its history and scenic mountain setting.
Image from davidaabrown
In 1838 a federal Branch Mint went into operation at Dahlonega. It coined more than $100,000 worth of gold in its first year, and by the time it closed in 1861, it had produced almost 1.5 million gold coins with a face value of more than $6 million.
Courtesy of Dahlonega Mountain Signal
Construction of the Consolidated Gold Mining Company began in Dahlonega in 1899, during a revived interest in the area's gold. The company was the largest gold-processing plant east of the Mississippi River.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lum133.
The Dahlonega Gold Museum, one of the city's many tourist attractions, is housed in the historic Lumpkin County Courthouse, built in 1836. The museum documents the importance of gold to the area's history and economy.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
Visitors browse through the shops in downtown Dahlonega. The city has evolved from its beginning as a rough mining town to a tourist attraction offering shopping, dining, museums, and annual festivals.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Three Frenchmen brought a couple of dancing bears to Dahlonega for a show in 1892.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # lum058.
A gold-mining operation near Dahlonega is pictured circa 1910.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lum211.
The old courthouse in Wilkes County, pictured circa 1890, was constructed in 1817 and served until 1904.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wlk142b.
The Wilkes County Courthouse, completed in 1904, is designed with a Richardsonian Romanesque influence. Located in Washington, the courthouse is the county's second.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A wagon loaded with cotton, pictured circa 1900, stands on West Main Street in Washington, the seat of Wilkes County. Cotton was a major cash crop in the county throughout the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century, ending with the boll weevil invasion.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #wlk011.
