The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Midtown skyline, seen here from Piedmont Park, reflects the neighborhood's dramatic growth. Midtown is the second-largest business district in Atlanta.Â
Photograph by Daniel Mayer
Sections of Peachtree Street, Atlanta's primary thoroughfare, retained a rural character well into the late nineteenth century.Â
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.Â
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.Â
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, #
wtf078.
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
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, #
hal255.
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, #sum135a.
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
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
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
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 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.
Although the Darien economy is dependent on tourism, many locals continue to make a living through offshore fishing and shrimping.
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 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.
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.
The Wilcox County Courthouse, built in Abbeville in 1903, is designed in the neoclassical revival style. It is the county's second courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workmen in Wilcox County, pictured circa 1915, stand on white-oak barrel staves, which were shipped overseas for use in whiskey barrels.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wlc005.
General Joseph Wheeler, born near Augusta, commanded U.S. volunteers in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Wheeler also served during the Civil War and the Philippine Insurrection, and authored several books on military and civil subjects. Wheeler County, in central Georgia, is named in his honor.
From The Conflict with Spain and Conquest of the Philippines, by H. F. Keenan
The Wheeler County Courthouse, built in Alamo in 1917, is designed in the neoclassical revival style. Restored in 1961, it is the county's second official courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Passengers pose for a photograph, circa 1901, at Gallemore, a community in Twiggs County located between Macon and Danville. Railroad construction played a key role in the settlement patterns of Twiggs County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
bib050.
The Twiggs County Courthouse, located in Jeffersonville, was completed in 1904. Designed in the Romanesque revival style, the courthouse was renovated in 1979 and expanded between 1996 and 2003.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workers harvest and distill turpentine at a still near Pembroke, which was founded as a railroad town and turpentine-shipping center in 1890. Incorporated in 1905, Pembroke became the seat of Bryan County in 1937.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-USF34-043792-D.
The Byron depot has been restored and now serves as a museum housing photographs and other memorabilia of the city's history.
Harvesting peaches in Peach County, the self-proclaimed "Peach Capital of the World."
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Andrew Thomas Lee.
Queen Elizabeth Joyner rides a float from Americus–Sumter County in the Peach Parade, held during Fort Valley's Peach Blossom Festival in the mid-1920s. Fort Valley is the seat of Peach County, the self-proclaimed "Peach Capital of the World."
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
sum095.
The Peach County Courthouse, built in 1936, was designed in the colonial revival style. The courthouse, located in Fort Valley, was expanded in 1970 and again in the 1990s.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Fort Valley State University, located in Peach County, is one of ten historically Black colleges and universities in the state. Since the advent of the HOPE scholarship program in 1993, enrollment by Georgia students at historically Black schools in other states has decreased.
Built in 1915, the Lincoln County Courthouse is designed in the neoclassical revival style. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the courthouse is the third to be built in Lincolnton, the county seat.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Mulberry Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1873 and offered church services and a school to Black residents of Lincolnton, the seat of Lincoln County. A congregation of approximately 200 members continues to meet in the church.
Courtesy of Lincolnton-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce
The Treutlen County Courthouse, built in Soperton in 1920, is designed in the neoclassical revival style. The county's original courthouse, it was renovated in 1976 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Telfair County Courthouse, built in 1934, is designed in the colonial revival style. It is the second courthouse to be built in McRae, which became the county seat in 1871. At least two other courthouses were built during the nineteenth century in Telfair County's first seat, Jacksonville.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The McLeod Hotel, pictured circa 1890, was located in Lumber City, which boasted the largest sawmill in the South at the time of its incorporation in 1889. Today Lumber City is one of six incorporated cities in Telfair County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
tel003.
A Register and Glennville train, pictured in 1906, stops at the depot in Glennville, today the largest city in Tattnall County. The R&G Railroad was renamed the East Georgia Railway in 1914.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
tat017.
The Tattnall County Courthouse, built in Reidsville in 1902, was most recently renovated in 1991. Designed with a Second Empire influence, the courthouse is the county's third.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workers, pictured circa 1910, pose at the sawmill of Frank Southwell near Mendes, in Tattnall County. The largely agricultural economy of the county in the nineteenth century supported a number of mills, many of which were built by 1849.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
tat054.
Gordonia-Alatamaha State Park, located in Tattnall County, is named for the endangered Gordonia bay tree, a relative of the rare Franklin tree discovered in 1765 by John and William Bartram. The park offers facilities for fishing, boating, and camping, as well as an eighteen-hole golf course.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Georgia Historical Commission gained national recognition as a pioneer in state historic preservation. The commission erected some 1,800 historical markers. This marker designates the site of the Cedar Creek Primitive Baptist Church, established in 1813 in Tattnall County.
Courtesy of Georgia Info, Digital Library of Georgia.
Constructed in 1825, the original Fayette County Courthouse, pictured in the late 1880s, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest courthouse in Georgia. The clock tower was added to the structure in 1888.
Courtesy of Fayette County Historical Society
Fayette County's first courthouse (in use from 1825 until 1965) is the oldest county courthouse in the State of Georgia. Today the building houses the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce and the Fayette County Development Authority.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House in Fayetteville, designed in the Greek revival style, was built in 1855 by John Stiles Holliday, the uncle of "Doc" Holliday. The city bought the home in 1999, and following renovations, the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House Museum opened to the public in 2003.
Image from Cdrcody
The Old Fayette County courthouse in 2015. Today, this building is used as office space for several organizations, including the Fayette County Development Authority. The Fayette County Superior Court is located at One Center Drive in Fayetteville.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Lula Falls and Lula Lake, in Walker County near Lookout Mountain, are protected by the Lula Lake Land Trust. More than 4,000 acres, which lie within the Rock Creek watershed, are owned by the trust.
Image from Rock/Creek
Lee and Gordon's Mills, pictured between 1900 and 1915, was a saw- and gristmill built during the 1830s in Walker County. The mill continued to operate until 1967, and during the 1990s it was restored as a Civil War-era museum.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
The Walker County Courthouse in LaFayette, completed in 1919, was designed in the Beaux-Arts classical and Italian Renaissance revival styles. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Warren County Courthouse, built in 1910 and renovated in 2000, is located in Warrenton and designed in the neoclassical revival style. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the courthouse is the county's third.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Visitors gather in 1908 outside the Beall Springs Hotel, a popular resort destination in Warren County during the early twentieth century. Built around a mineral springs, the town of Beall Springs developed after the state acquired the springs and surrounding land in 1773.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # wrr001.
The Roberts-McGregor House in Warrenton, the seat of Warren County, was a two-story stuccoed brick home built in 1835. The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and was later demolished.
Courtesy of Owens Library, School of Environment and Design, University of Georgia, Hubert B. Owens Collection, #Box 45.
The Turner County Courthouse, built in 1907, is the only recorded courthouse in the county's history. Located in Ashburn, it is designed in the neoclassical revival style.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The home of J. S. Shingler, pictured in 1918, is located in the historic Shingler Heights neighborhood of Ashburn, the seat of Turner County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # tur007.
The Towns County Courthouse, built in 1964, is designed in the modern style. Located in Hiawassee, it is the county's third courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Lake Chatuge, a 7,050-acre reservoir, was created when the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed the Hiwassee River in 1941. It is located in Towns County, in the north Georgia mountains.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Taliaferro County Courthouse, built in 1902, is designed in the High Victorian style. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, it is the county's second courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Liberty Hall, the mansion of Georgia governor Alexander Stephens, forms the centerpiece of the A. H. Stephens Historic Park in Taliaferro County. The interior of the home, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, is open to the public.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The A. H. Stephens Historic Park, in Crawfordville, is part of the Georgia state park system. The park includes Alexander Stephens's restored home, Liberty Hall, as well a museum containing Civil War artifacts.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Photograph from Georgia State Parks.
Liberty Hall in Taliaferro County, home of Alexander H. Stephens, is pictured in 1936.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, #HABS GA,133-CRAWV,1--2.
Hiawassee, the seat of Towns County, is situated on the banks of Lake Chatuge, a reservoir created by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1941. Although 3,500 acres of land were covered by the lake, its creation improved the local economy. Today the lake is a popular recreation area.
Photograph by Tom Cooper
Woody Lake is located near the rural community of Suches in Union County, which continues to operate the Woody Gap School, one of the few remaining rural schools in the state to survive several rounds of consolidation.
Image from John Getchel
The Union County Courthouse, located in Blairsville, was built in 1978 as an annex to the Union County Office Building, which was constructed in 1976. The county's fourth courthouse, it is designed in the modern style.
Photograph by John Trainor
Blood Mountain, with an altitude of 4,458 feet, is the highest point along the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail. It is located in Union County.
Image from Lily S
Visitors to Brasstown Bald, the highest elevation in Georgia, can view four states. The mountain is partly in Union County and partly in Towns County.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Old Union County Courthouse, constructed in 1899, served as the county's courthouse until 1971. The building, which today houses the Union County Historical Society, was renovated by local volunteers and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Toombs County Courthouse, built in Lyons in 1964, is designed in the modern style.
Photograph by OZinOH
C. E. Adams's ice plant, pictured in the 1940s, was located in Vidalia, a community in Toombs County. During the years of World War II (1941-45), a number of new businesses sprang up in Vidalia to support a newly built U.S. Army Air Force field.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #tom002.
Vidalia onions were first cultivated by Mose Coleman, a farmer in Toombs County, during the 1930s and today represent one of the county's most important commodities. The crop is named for the community of Vidalia, which is located in Toombs County and known as the "Sweet Onion Capital of the World."
Image from UGA CAES/Extension
Vidalia onions grow in Toombs County, one of the counties served by an extension office of the Small Farmer Outreach Training and Technical Assistance Project of Fort Valley State University.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Blackshear railroad depot in Pierce County, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, houses the chamber of commerce as well as the county's Heritage Museum and genealogical library. The depot was built in 1902.
Courtesy of John Walker Guss and Pierce County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc.
The Pierce County Courthouse, located in Blackshear, was constructed in 1902 and remodeled in 1970. Designed in the neoclassical revival style, the courthouse is the county's third. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A warehouse in Pierce County stores bales of cotton, one of the major crops grown in the county during the nineteenth century. The boll weevil infestation of the 1920s, however, caused many Pierce County farmers to switch from cotton to tobacco cultivation.
Courtesy of John Walker Guss and Pierce County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc.
The Satilla River, pictured near Blackshear, the seat of Pierce County, circa 1925.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # prc012.
Brewton-Parker College is a four-year institution affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention. Built in 1904, the same year as the school's founding, Gates Hall, pictured, is the only original building still standing on the college's main campus, which is located in Mount Vernon.
Courtesy of Terry Gaston, Brewton-Parker College
Richard Montgomery, pictured in an engraving made around 1777, was a brigadier general in the Continental Army who was killed in Quebec in 1775. Montgomery County, in east central Georgia, is named in his honor.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
The Montgomery County Courthouse, designed in the neoclassical revival style, was built in 1907. Located in Mount Vernon, the courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Renovations to the building were completed in 1992.
Photograph by OZinOH
The East and West Railroad, built between Cartersville and Cedartown around 1900, is one of several railroads that came to Polk County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
plk073-84.
The Polk County Courthouse, designed in the stripped classical style, was built in Cedartown in 1951. It is the county's third courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A crowd is gathered for a 1946 Eugene Talmadge political rally in Cedartown, Polk County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
plk024-84.
Hiram Colored School in Paulding County was built by the Rural School Building Program of the Julius Rosenwald Fund in 1930. The Rosenwald schools, which offered an education to African American students, were built throughout the South from 1912 to 1932.
Jacob Searight Freeman, pictured circa 1927, was a cotton farmer in Paulding County. Agriculture has played an integral role in the county's economy since the nineteenth century.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pld015-95.
The Paulding County Courthouse, located in Dallas, was built in 1892 and is designed in the Queen Anne style. The structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and a three-story annex was added in 1990. It is the county's third courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The students of Oak Hill School, a one-room school in Paulding County, gather with their teacher, Ella Louise Babb, for a photograph in 1904. Similar schools opened around the county early in the twentieth century.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pld004.
A railroad depot is pictured in Ideal, in Macon County.
Courtesy of Steve Storey
The Macon County Courthouse in Oglethorpe, built in 1894, is an example of the Romanesque revival style. It is the county's third courthouse, and the second to be built in Oglethorpe, which became the county seat in 1856. The first seat of Macon County was Lanier.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The cemetery at Andersonville Prison, the most notorious prison camp of the Civil War, was designated a national cemetery after the war ended. In 1998 the Andersonville National Historic Site, in Macon County, opened the National Prisoner of War Museum, which is dedicated to all U.S. prisoners of war.
Image from Ken Lund
Rubber ducks race down Beaver Creek during the 2005 Beaver Creek Festival, held each fall in Montezuma, one of the largest cities in Macon County. The festival celebrates the recovery of the city following the 1994 flooding of the Flint River.
Photograph by Camille Bielby
The Wrightsville railroad depot, located in the seat of Johnson County, was built in 1900 by the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad. Pictured circa 1915, the depot was restored duringthe 1990s and today houses the Wrightsville–Johnson County Chamber of Commerce and the Johnson County Development Authority.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
jhn110.
The Johnson County Courthouse, built in 1895, is the county's second courthouse. Designed in the Romanesque revival and colonial revival styles, the building was remodeled in 1938 and restored in 1996.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Nannie Lou Warthen Institute, pictured circa 1900, was founded in 1888 as a district high school in Johnson County by the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the early 1900s the school received a charter and became Warthen College, which later closed.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
jhn104.
Workers prepare to plow a field on Will J. Bruner's Calhoun County farm in 1932. Although the number of small farms in the county has decreased over the years, more than 50 percent of Calhoun County is designated as prime farmland by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #cly012.
Built in 1935, the Calhoun County Courthouse, located in Morgan, is the third in the county's history. Designed in the colonial revival style, the courthouse was renovated in 1972.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Among several endangered species found in Calhoun County is the gopher tortoise, the state reptile of Georgia. The tortoise is identified as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Image from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The gopher tortoise is the official state reptile. Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region 4/24/2002
Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region 4/24/2002
The Mulberry depot in Jackson County is pictured circa 1910.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
jac014.
Bales of cotton are weighed, circa 1904, in Commerce, one of several incorporated cities in Jackson County. Because the town was an important center for the cotton market early in the twentieth century, residents changed its name from Harmony Grove to Commerce in 1904.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
jac005.
The Jackson County Courthouse in Jefferson, designed in the classical modern style, was completed in 2004. It is the county's fifth courthouse.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The train depot in Pendergrass, pictured in 1908, was renovated in the 1990s and today houses the Pendergrass City Hall, as well as a community center. Pendergrass is an incorporated city in Jackson County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
jac011.
Almost 200 acres of vineyards at Chateau Elan, a winery in Braselton, are planted with Vitis vinifera varieties and French-American hybrids. Chateau Elan produces an average of 40,000 cases of wine annually.
Courtesy of Gerard Krewer
A gathering takes place in Clarkesville, the seat of Habersham County, outside the county's second courthouse. The structure was built in 1832 and destroyed in 1898.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hab010.
The "Home of the Big Red Apple" monument, built in downtown Cornelia in 1925, commemorates the importance of apples to the economy of Habersham County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hab027.
The Habersham County Courthouse, built in 1963, is designed in the modern style. Situated in downtown Clarkesville, the courthouse is the county's fourth.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Stewart County Courthouse in Lumpkin, designed in the neoclassical revival style, was built in 1923. The county's fifth courthouse, the structure has been renovated twice, first in 1935-36 and again in 1983.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Moye
The excavation of the Singer-Moye Mounds in Stewart County has revealed the buried foundations of Indian buildings that were destroyed and abandoned more than 600 years ago. Thousands of ceramics fragments and animal bones have also been recovered.
Photograph by Elisabeth Hughes, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Although cotton is still grown in Stewart County today, overproduction and lack of rail access ultimately led to the crop's decline in the county during the 1850s. Earlier in the nineteenth century, the county was one of the state's top three cotton producers.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Moye
The Bedingfield Inn in Lumpkin, built in 1836 and restored in 1965, is considered to be the first small-town community preservation project in Georgia. It was restored as part of an effort by county leaders to establish a tourist industry in the area.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Moye
The Kirbo Educational Center at Florence Marina State Park in Stewart County provides historical information on the town of Florence, as well as displays of animals and Indian artifacts.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Moye
Church Row, located in the Louvale community of Stewart County, comprises the Antioch Primitive Baptist Church, Marvin Methodist Church, and New Hope Baptist Church. Each church was originally established in another community before moving to Louvale.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Moye
The Cumming Country Fair and Festival, held each October in Cumming, offers a variety of rides and games along the midway, as well as concerts, a petting zoo, and Heritage Village, which features historical exhibits.
Photograph by Nancy Horton
Cumming City Hall is located in downtown Cumming, the seat of Forsyth County. The four-story building houses the city's administrative offices and features a rotunda depicting various community leaders from 1900 to 2002.
Photograph by Thomson200 / CC0
On January 17, 1987, a group of Atlantans marched to protest the lack of African Americans in Cumming, the seat of Forsyth County. Led by the Reverend Hosea Williams, the march was disrupted by militant white racists, many from outside the county.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Built circa 1870, the Dodge Guest House is considered Dodge County's oldest residence. Located ten miles southeast of Eastman, it was built by William Dodge for executives of his Georgia Land and Lumber Company. Next door a "sister" house (demolished) served as the residence of Captain John C. Forsyth, the company agent. He was murdered there in 1890 at the behest of several conspirators against the Dodges.
Photograph by Harold B. Haley
William Dodge was president of the Georgia Land and Lumber Company, which owned 300,000 acres of longleaf pine in Georgia during the nineteenth century. In 1870 Dodge funded the construction of a courthouse in Dodge County, which was named in his honor.
Courtesy of Georgia Historical Quarterly
The Dodge County Courthouse, designed in the neoclassical revival style, was built in Eastman in 1908. The structure replaced a two-story wooden courthouse built around the time of the county's creation in 1870.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A camp in Dodge County, pictured in 1937, housed workers in the turpentine industry that arose, alongside the lumber industry, in the area during the 1930s.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-USF34-017700-C.
The mausoleum of Martha Buchan (1858-1938) and Albert Genavie (1854-1925) Williamson is in the historic Orphans Cemetery, just north of Eastman. The Georgia marble structure, erected in 1912 and adorned by a three-ton, columned canopy enclosing the statuary of Italian marble, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Photograph by Harold B. Haley
The Monroe County Courthouse, designed in the High Victorian Eclectic style, was built in Forsyth in 1896. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the structure is the county's second courthouse.
Photograph by J Stephen Conn
The Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute was founded in Monroe County in 1849 and later became Tift College. In 1986 the school merged with Mercer University in Macon.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #mnr079.
Employees of the Gus Stuart Logging Company in Monroe County load freshly cut lumber in 1952. The timber industry became an important part of the county's economy in the mid-twentieth century after the demise of the cotton industy.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mnr147.
Lake Juliette, a 3,600-acre reservoir in Monroe County, is one of the premier spots for waterfowl hunting in the state. It is operated by the Georgia Power Company.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The railroad depot in Juliette, in Monroe County, is pictured circa 1900.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mnr183.
West Adams Street in the town of Forsyth, in Monroe County, is pictured circa 1913. On the left is Forsyth Methodist Church, and on the right is Maynard's Cotton Warehouse.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mnr102.
Sawnee Mountain Preserve, a 720-acre park in Forsyth County, opened to the public in 2005. Built on abandoned mining lands, the park offers hiking, rock climbing, and environmental education to vistors.
Photograph by Melinda S. Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Marchers demonstrate for fair housing in Forsyth County in 1987. The march, led by Hosea Williams, ended in a confrontation with Ku Klux Klansmen throwing rocks and bottles at the demonstrators. The incident brought national attention to Forsyth County and resulted in the indictment of two Klan organizations.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Forsyth County Courthouse in Cumming, the county's third, was built in 1977 to replace an earlier courthouse that burned in 1973. In 1996 an administration building was constructed across the street from the courthouse.
Photograph by Melinda S. Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Workers load a steamboat docked at Hawkinsville on the Ocmulgee River, circa 1910. The seat of Pulaski County, Hawkinsville became a major center for river transportation in the state during the nineteenth century.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pul003.
The Pulaski County Courthouse, built in 1874, is the county's third courthouse. A three-story annex was added to the courthouse in 1910, and the original building was restored in 1936. Designed in the neoclassical revival style, the courthouse is located in Hawkinsville, which became the county seat in 1836.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Hawkinsville, in Pulaski County, calls itself the harness horse racing capital of Georgia. A section of city's Horse Training Facility is pictured.
Courtesy of UGA Archway Partnership
The Jeff Davis County Courthouse in Hazlehurst was constructed in 1907. Renovations were completed in 1975 and 1995, and the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Designed in the neoclassical revival style, the courthouse is the county's first.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Pace House in Hazlehurst was built in 1900 by one of the city's orginal aldermen and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. In 1996 the Hazlehurst-Jeff Davis County Historical Museum Society purchased the house and opened the Hazlehurst Jeff Davis Museum. A fire in 2011 destroyed the building and damaged many of the museum's artifacts.
Image from Bubba73 (Jud McCranie)
The Meriwether Inn, a Victorian hotel built in 1869, dominated the resort grounds when Franklin D. Roosevelt first visited Warm Springs in 1924. Early patients of the Warm Springs Foundation stayed in the inn and a number of cottages scattered across the grounds.
Completed in 1904, the Meriwether County Courthouse in Greenville was designed in the neoclassical revival style. The building was restored in 1980 after a fire in 1976 destroyed its outer walls. It is the county's second courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Cotton, a significant economic factor in the early economy of Meriwether County, is weighed by B. B. Lovett Sr. (center), E. D. Gill (left), and Henry Hegman at Lovett's warehouse in Woodbury, circa 1925. Lovett also owned substantial acreage in the county at that time.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mer065.
In 1932, the same year in which he was elected president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt built a home in Warm Springs that came to be known as the Little White House. The home was opened to the public in 1948, three years after Roosevelt's death there.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives.
A woman drives a carriage in Lanier County, circa 1900. Industrialization drove the development of the county's two main communities during the nineteenth century. Alapaha (later Lakeland, the county seat) began as a mill village, while Registerville (later Stockton) was a railroad town.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lan004.
The Lanier County Courthouse, designed in the modern style, was built in Lakeland in 1973 to replace the county's first courthouse, built in 1921.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Banks Lake, a 3,900-acre natural lake, is located within the Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Lanier County. The refuge receives approximately 20,000 visitors each year.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Fitzpatrick Hotel, pictured in the background, is a historic structure in downtown Washington. Originally called Heard's Fort, the city is said to be the first place in the nation named in honor of U.S. president George Washington. Incorporated in 1805, Washington is the seat of Wilkes County.
Image from Brent Moore
The home of Robert Toombs, a Confederate general and U.S. senator, was built in 1797. Located in Washington, the seat of Wilkes County, the home is open to the public as a state historic site.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
In May 1865 the final cabinet meeting of the Confederacy, presided over by Jefferson Davis, was held in the State of Georgia Bank building in Washington. The building, pictured circa 1900, later served as the residence of B. W. Heard.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wlk001.
A carnival on the square in Washington is pictured circa 1901. The Fitzpatrick Hotel is on the left, and the old Wilkes County Courthouse is visible behind the Ferris wheel. A sign advertises "wild Aztec girls," and says they are "twenty-four years old, stand three feet tall, weigh thirty-seven pounds, and their heads are no larger than an orange."
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wlk119.
A revitalization effort in downtown Sylvania, completed in 2005, brought new sidewalks and other improvements to the city. The seat of Screven County, Sylvania is known as the "Azalea and Dogwood City," as well as the "Welcome Station City."
Photograph by Nancy Edenfield
An early-twentieth-century postcard, date issued 1930-1945, depicts the Screven County Courthouse in Sylvania. This courthouse was built in 1897 to replace one that burned in a citywide fire that same year, and served the county until 1963.
Image from Boston Public Library
Residents of Screven County participate in the parade for the 2006 Livestock Festival, held each April in Sylvania. The Miss Screven County Livestock Festival Queen is also crowned during the festival.
Photograph by Nancy Edenfield
The Sweet Auburn neighborhood was the heart of the Black residential and business community in the first part of the twentieth century. Pictured in the foreground is an administrative office of the National Park Service, which maintains the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in the neighborhood.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The old Atlanta Life Insurance building, pictured in 2005, is boarded up on Auburn Avenue. Established by Alonzo Herndon in 1905, Atlanta Life was one of three financial institutions, all headquartered in the Sweet Auburn district, that served the Black middle class in Atlanta before the civil rights movement.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Royal Peacock, a club located in Atlanta's Sweet Auburn historic district, was formerly known as the Top Hat Club, one of the city's premier African American music venues early in the twentieth century.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta is one of the many historic properties that J. W. Robinson has worked to restore.
Image from Wally Gobetz
Visitors enjoy the activities offered at the Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival, held each year in the Auburn Avenue historic district. The festival was founded in 1984 by civil rights leader Hosea Williams.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Members of a Heard County family pose in front of their cotton crop, circa 1900. Residents of the county began raising cotton in the nineteenth century, but many were forced to abandon the crop during the first decades of the twentieth century, in the wake of the boll weevil devastations and the Great Depression.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hrd005.
Heard County's third courthouse, built in 1964, is an example of the modern architectural style. It is located in Franklin, the seat of Heard County, which was created by the state legislature in 1830.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
In 2001 Heard County resident Dot Moore published Oracle of the Ages, a collection of anecdotes about Mayhayley Lancaster, a well-known fortune teller and activist in Heard County. The book was selected by the Georgia Historical Society for the Lilla M. Hayes Award in 2002.
Image from Terrycchambers
The Lithia Springs Hotel in Tallapoosa, pictured circa 1910, was one of several hotels and resorts built in Haralson County during the last decades of the nineteenth century to attract visitors to the area's mineral springs. It was torn down in 1943.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hrl039-84.
The depot at Bremen in Haralson County, pictured circa 1925, was built for the Southern Railway. Norfolk Southern, which bought Southern, still uses the lines for its freight trains.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hrl019.
The Haralson County Courthouse, designed in the modern style, was built in Buchanan in 1972. An earlier courthouse, completed in 1891, today houses the county's historical society and a museum.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Employees of HL-A Lock, a manufacturer of locks, door handles, and mirrors for Honda, work in the factory. The company, located in Bremen, is one of Haralson County's major employers.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Tom Murphy is pictured in his Bremen (Haralson County) law office following his defeat by Republican Bill Heath in the 2002 election for Speaker of the Georgia House.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Designed in the neoclassical revival style, the Jasper County Courthouse was built in Monticello in 1907. The building, constructed of brick and Georgia marble, is the county's fourth courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Seven Islands Nature Trail in Monticello provides one of many opportunities for outdoor recreation in Jasper County. Each year the city hosts the hunters, fishers, and boaters who visit the nearby Oconee National Forest and Lake Jackson.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
This courthouse, built in Irwinville in 1883, was Irwin County's third official courthouse and continued to house county government offices after the seat was relocated to Ocilla in 1907. Pictured in 1935, the building was remodeled into apartments during the Great Depression.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Photograph by Arthur Rothstein.
The Irwin County Courthouse was built in Ocilla in 1910, three years after Ocilla was designated county seat. Designed in the neoclassical revival style, the building was renovated in 1972.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, was captured by Union troops in Irwin County near the close of the Civil War in 1865. The location is marked today by the Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site, which includes a museum and a thirteen-acre park.
Courtesy of Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site
The Harris County Courthouse was built in Hamilton in 1908. In 1998 an annex was added to the building, which is an example of the neoclassical revival style.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
This etching by John Norman, made around 1776, depicts the death of Joseph Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the Revolutionary War. Both Warren County and its seat, Warrenton, in east central Georgia are named in his honor.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
The old Baker County Courthouse in Newton was flooded by the Flint River in both 1994 and 1998. The structure was restored in 2000 and today houses a library and county government offices.
Courtesy of Greg Loyd
Clay is chopped into small pieces during kaolin processing at a plant in Glascock County on December 2, 1971. The kaolin, timber, and health care industries have formed the basis of the county's economy since the mid-1940s.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
gla003.
In 1922 John Wesley Langdale, founder of the Langdale Forest Products Company, purchased timber leases around Mayday, an unchartered community in Echols County. Today the company, founded in 1894 and based in Valdosta, owns a significant portion of the county's land.
From Remembered Places and Leftover Pieces
Members of the Rentz family stand outside their home in Statenville, the seat of Echols County, in the late nineteenth century. The economy of the area, still predominantly rural, has relied on agriculture and forestry throughout its history.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
ech001.
The Echols County Courthouse in Statenville, designed in the modern style, was built in 1956. It is the county's third courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A Central of Georgia Railway train stops at the depot in Colquitt, the seat of Miller County, around 1890. The only incorporated town in the county, Colquitt was named in honor of preacher and politician Walter Terry Colquitt.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mil001.
The first courthouse in Grady County was built in Cairo in 1908. The structure, which was designed by architect Alexander Blair, burned in 1980.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
gra060.
In 1964 the family of Walter Blair Roddenbery (in portrait), owners of the W. B. Roddenbery Company, donated $185,000 for the construction of a library in Cairo. Pictured at the library's dedication are, from left, Ralph Roddenbery, Fred Roddenbery, librarian Wessie Connell, J. B. Roddenbery, and J. B. Roddenbery Jr.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #gra050.
Georgia native Teresa Edwards has been recognized as one of the greatest American female athletes of the twentieth century. After beginning her career playing for the University of Georgia, she went on to play basketball in the WNBA as well as international leagues. Edwards is the first basketball player to have played in five Olympics, and she won gold in the 1996 Atlanta games.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Cairo, the seat of Grady County, was settled in the early 1800s and incorporated in 1870. The city is governed by a mayor, city manager, and five-member city council.
Image from Michael Rivera
Alonzo Webb (left) and Jim Webb pose outside their general store in Adel, circa 1920. Originally named Puddleville, Adel was incorporated in 1889 and became the seat of Cook County in 1918.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # cok007-82.
A walking trail winds through the grounds of Reed Bingham State Park, located near Adel in Cook and Colquitt counties. The park surrounds a 375-acre lake, which is used for boating, fishing, and waterskiing.
Image from Mike McCall
This Panola granite, found at Panola Mountain State Conservation Park in Rockdale County, differs in mineral composition and texture from the granite outcrops at nearby Stone Mountain and Arabia Mountain.
Photograph by Chad A. S. Mullikin
The Rockdale County Courthouse, designed in the colonial revival style, was built in Conyers in 1939. Historical records suggest that the courthouse is the second to be constructed in the county's history.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workers operate a sawmill on the McCart Farm in Rockdale County in 1920. A number of mills operated in the county during the early decades of the twentieth century.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #roc009.
The Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Rockdale County was founded by Trappist monks in 1944. The monastery supports itself through the sale of a variety of products, including books and bonsai trees.
Courtesy of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery
A farmer stands in a Mitchell County pecan grove in the early twentieth century. The grove was one of the first to be planted in the county. Pecans, along with cotton, peanuts, and soybeans, continue to be an important agricultural product in Mitchell County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mit009.
Completed in 1937, the Mitchell County Courthouse includes elements of both art deco and stripped classical architectural styles. It is the fourth courthouse to be built in the county.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Shoppers browse the "Gnat Market" in downtown Camilla during the 2005 Gnat Days Festival. The festival takes place each May and includes a 5K run/walk, a bicycle race, and a pet show.
Courtesy of Camilla Chamber of Commerce
Wildflowers grow near Hinesville, the seat of Liberty County.
Image from K e v i n
The M. R. Riviere Drugstore, pictured circa 1905, was located across from Bradwell Park in Hinesville, the seat of Liberty County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # lib067.
Samuel Dowse Bradwell (left) poses with faculty members outside Bradwell Institute, circa 1875. The private boarding school was founded as the Hinesville Academy by Bradwell's father but closed during the Civil War. Bradwell reopened the school after the war and renamed it in honor of his father.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lib058.
A worker operates a turpentine still in Hinesville during the 1930s. The decade was one of growing prosperity for the community, which steadily recovered from the devastation of the Civil War.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # lib011.
The roads that led from Camp Stewart to Hinesville were filled with a variety of entertainment choices, including juke-joints, bars, gambling houses, USO clubs, and entertainment booths, like the one pictured here in April 1941.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-DIG-fsa-8a35213.
Stores line Main Street in Hinesville, the seat of Liberty County, in 1941. The arrival of Camp Stewart the previous year spurred tremendous growth in Hinesville during World War II, as establishments catering to the soldiers opened in the town.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-USF34-043785-D.
Soldiers at Fort Stewart, near Hinesville in Liberty County, stand in formation outside the fort's headquarters. Established during World War II, the fort has remained active and today houses around 16,000 troops of the Third Infantry Division.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lib001.
In 2003 Greensboro was a Main Street Community of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
Main Street was a center of activity in Greensboro, pictured circa 1895. The economy of the city, the seat of Greene County, was heavily dependent on cotton production in the area.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #grn213.
African American tenant farmers pose before a cotton field in Greene County in October 1940. The woman has a cotton sack slung over her shoulder.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
grn208.
Men gather to buy and sell cotton at the Cotton Exchange in Greensboro, circa 1891. After the Civil War, the community returned to the production of cotton as its primary economic activity, but a boll weevil infestation in 1922 led to the city's decline for the remainder of the decade.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
grn167.
A worker in Greensboro clears leaves from the town's Bethea Square in the late 1930s. During these years the town benefited from the assistance of the federal government's New Deal programs, although most of the relief went to white residents rather than to the community's Black majority.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
grn224.
The Mary-Leila Cotton Mill, pictured around 1910, opened in Greensboro in 1899. It was the first industrial factory to arrive in Greene County, as the community attempted to diversify its cotton-based economy.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
grn121.
A mill worker is pictured in October 1941 at the Mary-Leila Cotton Mill in Greensboro. Mills in Georgia were profitable during World War II (1941-45), producing such items as nylon and silk, as well as life rafts and uniforms for the war effort.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
The Greene County Courthouse in Greensboro, designed in the Greek revival style, was completed in 1849. The top floor of the building has been used as a Masonic lodge since the time of its construction. The courthouse was remodeled in 1938 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Large portions of the Cohutta Wilderness Area lie in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Fannin County. Designated a wilderness area by the federal government in 1976, Cohutta today covers around 40,000 acres in Georgia and Tennessee and is the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi River.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The Fannin County Courthouse, completed in 2004, is the third courthouse to be built in Blue Ridge, the county seat since 1895. The county's first courthouse was constructed in Morganton, the first seat, in 1855.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Builders construct a road through the mountains of Fannin County in the 1930s. The development of a transportation infrastructure, including railroads and roads, within the county has played a key role in the area's economic development since the 1880s.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
fan007-83.
The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway transports tourists on excursion trips between Blue Ridge, the seat of Fannin County, and McCaysville. The train operates each year from April through December.
Image from Thomas Hawk
A small area of concentrated vegetable production, mostly cabbage, pumpkins, tomatoes, and sweet corn, exists north of Atlanta. A cabbage farm in Fannin County is pictured.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Men gather on the steps of the post office (far right) on Main Street in Mineral Bluff, a community in Fannin County, circa 1910.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
fan012-83.
The Cook County Courthouse was built in Adel in 1939. Designed in the stripped classical style, the courthouse is the county's first.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A train stops at the depot in Sparks, circa 1907. Sparks, along with Cecil and Lenox, is an incorporated town originally established as a railroad stop in Cook County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
cok003.
Black vultures are a common sight at Reed Bingham State Park, which lies in both Cook and Colquitt counties. Thousands of black and turkey vultures winter in the park each year.
Photograph by Susan Wing
The Colquitt County Courthouse, built in 1902, is located in Moultrie. The courthouse, along with the Moultrie Commercial Historic District and several other downtown buildings, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A tram road, built by the Georgia Northern Railroad to transport timber, ran through Colquitt County in the early 1900s. The timber industry in the county thrived in the decade before the Civil War, with the production of naval stores, and for several decades afterward, with the harvesting of trees to make crossties for the railroads.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
clq072.
Buyers inspect tobacco leaves during an auction held in a Moultrie warehouse, circa 1965. Tobacco cultivation has been an important economic activity in Colquitt County since 1925.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
clq063.
Brewton-Parker College, a Baptist institution based in Montgomery County, offers an extension program at Norman Park in Colquitt County. The building originally housed the Norman Institute, a Baptist-affiliated school founded in 1900.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
clq046.
Reed Bingham State Park, located in Colquitt and Cook counties, offers nature trails from which a variety of wildlife, including birds, snakes, and turtles, may be observed.
Image from tom spinker
A birding trail winds through the Birdsong Nature Center, located partially in Grady County. Birdsong was founded in 1986 as a nonprofit educational center to offer programs in biodiversity, land management, and the longleaf-pine ecosystem.
Photograph by Julius F. Ariail Jr.
The Grady County Courthouse in Cairo was built in the early 1980s after an earlier courthouse, constructed in 1908, burned.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
People gather outside the Atlantic Coast Line Depot in Cairo, the seat of Grady County, circa 1916. With the arrival of the railroads in the county, area residents were able to market their agricultural products, including timber.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
gra040.
In 1825 one of the first white settlers in the area, Thomas Jefferson Johnson, acquired the land that became Pebble Hill Plantation, in Thomasville. Two years later he built the first structure on the property. The site has been a museum since 1983.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Gilmer County Courthouse is located in Ellijay, the seat of Gilmer County. It is part of a courthouse complex that was begun in 2007 and completed in 2009. The complex replaced the county's historic courthouse, which was demolished in 2008. The part of the new courthouse that faces the city square looks similar to the old courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Gilmer County Courthouse is located in Ellijay, the seat of Gilmer County. It is part of a courthouse complex that was begun in 2007 and completed in 2009. The complex replaced the county's historic courthouse, which was demolished in 2008.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Stegall Mill, pictured in 1939, milled both lumber and wheat beside the Caretecay River in Gilmer County. Mills and cotton gins were among the earliest industries to be established in the county during the nineteenth century.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #gil002.
A stream flows through the Chattahoochee National Forest, a large portion of which lies in Gilmer County.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Built in 1896, the Clinch County Courthouse in Homerville was originally designed in the Victorian style. In 1936 extensive renovations and additions, designed in the neoclassical revival style, were made to the courthouse, which is the third in the county's history.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
An engine stops at a sawmill in Clinch County, at a now-defunct town called Humphries between Dupont and Stockton, in 1893. The mill was located in the wiregrass region of the state, which was heavily logged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #cln002.
Camp Homerville, pictured in 1934, was established in Clinch County during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps, Company 1413. Members of the corps focused on forestry and photography.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The Quitman County Courthouse in Georgetown was built in 1939. Designed in the stripped classical style, the structure also features colonial revival elements.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A Seaboard Air Line Railway train pulls into the depot at Claxton, circa 1915. Claxton, the seat of Evans County, was founded when the first railroad came through the area in the 1890s.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The courthouse in Evans County, designed in the neoclassical revival style, was built in Claxton in 1923. Substantial renovations were completed in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Members of the Civitan Club in Newnan conduct a Claxton Fruit Cake sale, circa 1961. The Claxton Bakery, which produces the fruit cakes, was founded in Claxton, the seat of Evans County, in 1910 and continues operation today.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # cow053.
The Dooly County Courthouse, completed in 1892, is the third to be erected in Vienna, the county seat. Designed in the Romanesque revival style, the courthouse underwent renovations in both 1963 and the late 1980s.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
L. A. Woodruff (center), the postmaster of Byromville in Dooly County, stands outside the U.S. Post Office with two mail carriers, V. O. Webb (left) and Bob Johnson, circa 1910. Byromville, incorporated in 1905, is one of six incorporated towns in the county.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
dol003-82.
The Winterville railroad depot, built in Clarke County in the late nineteenth century, was first known as "Six-mile Station" to indicate its distance from Athens. Later known as Winter's Station, the depot today houses Winterville's visitors center.
The Clarke County Courthouse, located in Athens, was built in 1914 and designed by A. Ten Eyck Brown. It has elements of Italian Renaissance revival, neoclassical revival, and Beaux-Arts classicism architecture.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Puryear's Mill, pictured circa 1918, was located on Cedar Creek in Clarke County and operated as a cotton gin and corn mill. The facility was dismantled in 1945.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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In 1957 the residents of Winder celebrated "Russell Appreciation Day" in honor of Richard B. Russell Jr., a longtime resident of the city. Russell, waving from the car, served briefly as governor of the state before becoming a U.S. senator in 1933. He remained in the Senate until his death in 1971.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The city of Winder is the seat of Barrow County. Incorporated in 1884, the town covers about eleven square miles and serves as a bedroom community for Atlanta.
Image from Thomson M
The old train depot in Winder currently houses the city's chamber of commerce. The arrival in 1883 of the railroad spurred economic growth in Winder, which was renamed in appreciation of John H. Winder, the general manager of Seaboard Air Line Railway.
Image from Chris Pruitt
Shops line Broad Street, pictured circa 1910, in downtown Winder. Today Broad Street continues to be a major thoroughfare in the city, which is the seat of Barrow County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
brw270-82.
The two-story log blockhouse at Fort Yargo, founded in 1792, was built by white settlers as a defense against hostile Creek Indians in the area of present-day Barrow County. Today the fort seves as a state park.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Emanuel County Courthouse, the seventh in the county's history, was built in Swainsboro in 2002. The previous courthouse, completed in 1940, was the first in the county's history that did not burn. It was demolished in 2000, and a city park was built on the site.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workers for the Swainsboro Lumber Company in Emanuel County pose with timber, circa 1935. The company operated for approximately twenty years as part of the community's thriving lumber industry, which began in the 1870s with the arrival of the railroad.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # emn052.
Parrish Mill in the George L. Smith State Park in Emanuel County was built around 1880 and served in a variety of capacities, including as a sawmill and a dam. The park also offers camping, hiking, and boating to visitors.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
A crowd gathers to meet the train at the Central of Georgia Railway depot in Norristown, in Emanuel County. The arrival of railroads in the county during the 1870s spurred the growth of the local lumber industry.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #emn004.
A wooden bridge, pictured in 1908, crosses the Ogeechee River near Guyton in Effingham County. Today visitors to Guyton enjoy the Guyton Historic District and the Mossy Oak Music Park.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The Effingham County Courthouse in Springfield was built in 1908 and designed in the neoclassical revival style. The courthouse is likely the second to be constructed in Springfield, which was named the fourth seat in the county's history in 1799.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Lutheran minister Johann Martin Boltzius, along with religious refugees from Salzburger, founded the settlement of Ebenezer near Savannah in the early 1730s as a religious utopia. Boltzius hoped to create a successful economic system that was not dependent upon slavery.
Jerusalem Church was established by the Salzburgers in Ebenezer during the 1730s. Ebenezer, left in ruins after the Revolutionary War, had disappeared by 1855, but Jerusalem Church, now known as Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church, still stands. It is one of the few buildings in Georgia left intact after the Revolutionary War.
Photograph by Bruce Tuten
Confederate veterans of the Civil War stand outside the Effingham County Courthouse in 1901. During the war, Union troops occupied the abandoned town of Ebenezer, founded in the county by Lutherans around 1734.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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Springfield resident S. M. Claxton poses beside his delivery wagon, used to transport soda water, in 1913. In the years after the Civil War, Springfield began to decline, losing many of its businesses to the nearby town of Rincon.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The Burke County Courthouse in Waynesboro was completed in 1857. The vernacular architectural style includes Italianate elements as well as a Victorian clock tower. The fourth courthouse in the county's history, the structure replaced one that was both built and burnt in 1856.
Photograph by J Stephen Conn
Porter W. Carswell, who served in both houses of the state legislature during his political career, examines cotton grown in 1966 on Bellevue Plantation in Burke County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The Bark Camp Church, pictured around 1900, was a Baptist church established in 1788 on the Bark Camp site in Burke County. Bark Camp, founded prior to the Revolutionary War, served as a camp for incoming settlers to the area.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The Wilkinson County Courthouse, designed in the colonial revival style, was built in Irwinton in 1924. Wilkinson County was established in 1803 from land that was ceded by the Creek Indians to the state in the 1802 Treaty of Fort Wilkinson.
Photograph by C Smith
Kaolin is extracted in Wilkinson County at the Klondyke Mine, owned by the Edgar Brothers Kaolin Company, in 1936. The steam shovel (left) deposits the kaolin, a white clay-like substance used in the manufacture of a variety of products, into a rail car that carries the substance to a plant for processing.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wks014.
The Troup County Courthouse in LaGrange, designed in the stripped classical style, was completed in 1939. It is the third courthouse in the county's history.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Bellevue, pictured in 1900, was the home of Benjamin Hill, a senator from Georgia in both the U.S. and Confederate congresses. Designed in the Greek revival style, the house was completed in 1855.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The West Point Dam and Lake was constructed in Troup County by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the 1960s and 1970s to help control flooding in the area. Today the lake is a popular public recreation area.
Courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The clock tower of the Macon County Courthouse rises over downtown Oglethorpe, the county seat. Oglethorpe was incorporated in 1849 on land first settled by Timothy Barnard, who operated an Indian trading post prior to the Revolutionary War.
Photograph by Sherri Martin, The Citizen Georgian
Eagle Tavern in Watkinsville opened in 1801 and served as a stop for stage travelers during much of the nineteenth century. The tavern was dedicated as a historic site in 1966 by the Georgia Historical Commission and today houses a museum.
Photograph by Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
The city of Watkinsville, founded around 1791, is the seat of Oconee County. Agriculture has remained the primary economic activity throughout the city's history.
Courtesy of Tricia Smith, Oconee County Board of Commissioners
Elder Mill Covered Bridge, located south of Watkinsville, was built in the late nineteenth century and is one of the state's few covered wooden bridges still in use today.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
A "Dixie" tile roof graces a home in Ludowici, the seat of Long County in east Georgia. "Dixie" tiles were produced by the Ludowici-Celadon Roofing Tile Company at its plant near the town from the early 1900s until 1914.
Photograph by Luciana Spracher
The Long County Courthouse was built in Ludowici in 1926, six years after the county's creation from the western portion of Liberty County. The original courthouse is still in use today.
Courtesy of Debbie's Diner, Ludowici
The Ludowici Well Pavilion was constructed in 1905 and today serves as a public park in the center of town. The octagonal structure houses an artesian well and is covered with "Dixie" tile, which was manufactured in Ludowici early in the twentieth century.
Photograph by Luciana Spracher
C. W. Herndon, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, stands before a billboard, erected at his suggestion, in 1970. During the mid-twentieth century, the town of Ludowici in east Georgia acquired the reputation of being a speed trap, in which tourists traveling to and from Florida were often stopped.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lon001.
Students of the Fayetteville Academy in Fayette County gather before the school in the mid-1880s. The school, which served as the model for Margaret Mitchell's fictional Fayetteville Female Academy in Gone With the Wind, was housed in the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife home, erected in 1855.
Courtesy of Fayette County Historical SocietyÂ
The "Old 87" locomotive sits on the tracks outside the Fayetteville depot late in the nineteenth century. The Atlanta and Florida railroad line arrived in Fayetteville in 1888 and spurred an economic recovery in the area following the devastation of the Civil War.
Courtesy of Fayette County Historical Society
Citizens in Fayetteville are pictured circa 1906 on the downtown square. Following several decades of prosperity, the town suffered an economic downturn in the 1920s and 1930s as the result of a drought, the Great Depression, and the closure of its railroad line.
Courtesy of Fayette County Historical Society
The Crisp County Superior Court building in Cordele was opened in the late 2000s.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Residents of Crisp County gather for a watermelon eating, circa 1939. Watermelons are an important commodity in the county's economy, and the crop is celebrated annually with the Watermelon Days Festival, which is held in Cordele each July
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
crp002.
The groundbreaking for the St. Paul/Gillespie-Selden Rural Life Community Center in Cordele took place in December 1999. The center offers a twenty-four-hour child-care facility for parents on welfare who are struggling to find work.
Courtesy of USDA Rural Development
The Spalding County Courthouse was built in Griffin in 1985. It replaced the county's 1911 courthouse, which burned down in 1981.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The remains of more than 500 Confederate soldiers and 1 Union soldier are buried in Griffin's Stonewall Confederate Cemetery and Memorial Park. The cemetery was established around 1867 by the Ladies Memorial Aid Society in Griffin.
Photograph by Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
An old locomotive sits at an Albany station.
Courtesy of Steve Storey
The Dougherty County Courthouse in Albany, the county's third, was built in 1968 in the modern style. In 1993, after the completion of a new government center to house nonjudicial offices, the courthouse was named the Albany–Dougherty County Judicial Building.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Two men attempt to rescue a cow in high water near Albany during the Flint River flood of 1925. The Flint River has overrun its banks several times in Albany's history; the most severe flood occurred in the summer of 1994, when the river crested in the city at more than forty-three feet.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
dgh246-86.
Visitors feed a rhino in the Parks at Chehaw in Albany. The zoo was designed by Dougherty County native Jim Fowler, the longtime cohost of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. The Chehaw zoo and Zoo Atlanta are the only two accredited zoos in the state.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
Radium Springs, one of Georgia's Seven Natural Wonders, was the site of a casino that had its heyday during the 1920s. The casino was demolished in 2003.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
dgh004.
The Dade County Courthouse in Trenton, built in 1926, was designed in the Dutch colonial revival style. It houses the county's superior court, district attorney, and state probation office.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A waterfall in Cloudland Canyon State Park in Dade County. The park is one of many scenic attractions in the county, which include Lookout Mountain and 164 caves.
Image from Jeff Gunn
The business section of Roberta in Crawford County, around 1900, included the Roberta Drug Company (center). An advertisement for the Middle Georgia Loan and Realty Company hangs over the well in front of the drugstore.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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Jefferson Franklin Long was the first African American from Georgia to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. A native of Crawford County, Long was elected in December 1870 and served until March 1871.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
A monument commemorating Creek Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins stands in front of the Old Roberta Train Depot in Crawford County. Hawkins established the Creek Agency Reserve on the Flint River in Crawford County in 1803.
Photograph by Wikimedia
The Crawford County Courthouse in Knoxville, completed in 2002, stands one block behind the previous courthouse, which was built in 1832. Knoxville is one of only three unincorporated towns in the state serving as county seats.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Conyers, the seat of Rockdale County, began as the train station for a line built between Augusta and Marthasville (later Atlanta) in 1845. It was incorporated in 1854 and as of 2000 had a population of 10,689.
Photograph by Kate Howard, New Georgia Encyclopedia
The town of Conyers in Rockdale County is named for W. D. Conyers, a banker and railroad director who purchased the land on which the town was later established. He donated the land, with the stipulation that whiskey never be sold on it, for the construction of a railroad and depot in 1845.
Courtesy of City of Conyers
The original train depot in Conyers was built in 1845 and still stands in the city's "Olde Town" district. The railroad played an integral part in the city's history, attracting the attention of Union troops, who used Conyers as their headquarters, in 1864 and supporting a thriving farming and mill industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Photograph by Kate Howard, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Milstead Manufacturing Company, a cotton mill purchased by the Callaway family in 1905, was founded on the Yellow River near Conyers in 1902. Although the mill closed in 1960, many of the structures in its mill village are still standing. Date of image unavailable.
Courtesy of City of Conyers
Early twentieth-century view of Main Street in downtown Conyers.
Courtesy of City of Conyers
The church at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit offers daily masses to the public. The monastery, founded in Conyers in 1944 by twenty Cistercian monks, supports itself through the production of such items as pottery and fudge.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The Dinky, a 1905 Rogers steam locomotive, is housed in Olde Town Conyers, across from the original train depot. The engine is one of only three of this particular model left in the world.
Photograph by Kate Howard, New Georgia Encyclopedia
The railroad depot in Conyers, the seat of Rockdale County, is pictured in 1953.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
roc092.
The Catoosa County Courthouse, built in Ringgold in 1939, is the county's second courthouse. Designed in the colonial revival style, the courthouse replaced an older one that survived the Civil War.Â
Photograph by Brent Moore
The Old Stone Church in Ringgold was built in 1849 and served as a hospital during the Civil War for troops on both sides of the conflict. The original altar and pews of the church, which today houses a Civil War museum, are still intact.
Courtesy of Catoosa County News
Sergeant Appleton (left) and Acting 1st Sergeant J. B. Martin Jr., both of Troop A, Georgia National Guard, pose in July 1910 during a training camp at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park in Catoosa County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #cat009-84.
The Dawson County Courthouse in Dawsonville, the second in the county's history, was built in 1978.
Courtesy of J Stephen Conn
A group poses outside the McClure Mercantile Store in Dawson County between 1880 and 1889. Eleven of the twelve men pictured are identified as Harben, Colonel Bishop, A. Carney, J. Byrd, Jim McClure, Dave McKee, Dale McClure, Jim Martin, Horatio Tatum, John Wilder, and Dr. Kitchens.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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Located in Dawson County, Amicalola Falls derives its name from the Native American word meaning "tumbling waters." Just one of many waterfalls in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains, Amicalola Falls is the highest, with a drop of 729 feet.
Photograph by Ryan McKee
Fishing for trout in Dawson County. Several wild species are found in north Georgia: rainbow, brook, and brown trout.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The Taylor County Courthouse, designed in the neoclassical revival style, was built in Butler in 1935.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workers harvest cotton in Taylor County in December 1959. Cotton remains a major agricultural commodity in the area, along with peaches, poultry, and eggs.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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Baskets of strawberries are displayed at the Georgia Strawberry Festival, hosted each April by the city of Reynolds in Taylor County. The festival offers a number of events, including a strawberry cook-off, parades, and a car show.
Photograph by Kelly Bond
Located in Reynolds (Taylor County), the Ricks Bros. store, pictured in 1909, bought cotton and sold general merchandise.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #tay033.
The Oglethorpe County Courthouse stands at the corner of Gilmer and Main streets in Lexington. Built in 1887, the courthouse is designed in the Romanesque revival style.
Photograph by J Stephen Conn
The town of Crawford in Oglethorpe County was named for William H. Crawford, a state representative and U.S. senator from Georgia. Crawford died and was buried at Woodlawn, his estate in Oglethorpe County, in 1834.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
The Oglethorpe County Courthouse stands at the corner of Gilmer and Main streets.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Miller County Courthouse in Colquitt, constructed in 1977, is the county's fourth courthouse. The second and third courthouses burned in 1873 and 1974 respectively.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Leviston Sawmill in Miller County, pictured between 1905 and 1910, produced lumber, rosin, and turpentine for the booming naval stores market. By the 1930s, the timber industry was also involved in the production of paper.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mil002-82.
The Peace Wall, part of the Millennium Mural Project in Miller County, was designed and painted by artist Chrissie Orr of New Mexico, with the help of students, teachers, and community members, on the Miller County Middle School.
Courtesy of Colquitt Miller Arts Council, Colquitt
The Georgia Conservancy acquired more than 2,000 acres in Douglas County in the late 1960s, which became Sweetwater Creek State Park. Sweetwater Creek runs through the Lithia Springs park on its way to the Chattahoochee River. The acquisition of this land for the state was one of the conservancy's earliest victories.
Photograph by Jeff Gunn
The Sweetwater Park Hotel, located near the therapeutic mineral waters in Lithia Springs, was a popular resort during the early years of the twentieth century. The hotel burned in 1912.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The courthouse in Douglas County was completed in 1998 to replace an older courthouse constructed in the 1950s. Today the old courthouse, located on the site of three previous courthouses, houses a museum and the offices of the Douglas County Historical Society.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Wares are displayed outside of a store on Broad Street in Louisville. The seat of Jefferson County, Louisville served as the state capital from 1796 to 1807 and today supports a flourishing arts community.
Courtesy of Friends of Historic Downtown Louisville
The water tower at Old Town Plantation is located approximately eight miles southeast of Louisville in Jefferson County. The plantation was established as a trading post around 1770 by Georgia Galphin, an Indian commissioner, on the site of an ancient Creek town.
Courtesy of Forrest Shropshire
The Market House in Louisville originally served as the site for various commercial transactions, including the purchase of land and, during the antebellum period, the trading of enslaved people. Today the structure is used for both community and private events.
Photograph by Jud McCranie
Established in 1910, the Stone-Murphy Store is located in Louisville on Broad Street, the town's main thoroughfare. The arrival of the railroad early in the nineteenth century allowed Louisville to grow into a thriving business community, and Broad Street emerged as the center of commerce during the 1820s and 1830s.
Photograph by Carol Ebel
Cotton is loaded onto a steamboat named the City of Hawkinsville in 1897. The ship was docked at Hawkinsville, which is located in south central Georgia along the Ocmulgee River.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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Small businesses line Commerce Street in Hawkinsville, the county seat of Pulaski County. Hawkinsville is nicknamed Hub City and Georgia's Highway Hub because of the ten state and federal highways running through the town.
Courtesy of Hawkinsville Chamber of Commerce
In January 1925 the water of the Ocmulgee River crested at 36.6 feet in Hawkinsville, causing significant damage to the town's economy by flooding sawmills and washing away cut timber. The flood remained the highest on record in Hawkinsville until the 1994 flood caused by tropical storm Alberto.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pul093.
The Old Opera House in Hawkinsville, designed by Macon architect and theatrical designer W. R. Gunn, opened in 1908. The auditorium was restored in 2000 and features a hand-painted canvas stage curtain.
Courtesy of UGA Archway Partnership
Jasper, the seat of Pickens County, was incorporated in 1857. The town grew slowly until 1883, when the arrival of the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad spurred the expansion of the area's cotton and marble industries.
Courtesy of Robert S. Davis
A statue of William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero who was killed during the Siege of Savannah in 1779, stands on Madison Square in Savannah. The town of Jasper, the seat of Pickens County, was named in his honor.
Image from Disc wheel
Members of a gospel singing convention gather by the train depot in Jasper, circa 1910. Two conventions were held in the town each year, in May and September, and attracted large crowds from neighboring communities.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pck219-82.
Businesses line Main Street in downtown Canton, the seat of Cherokee County. The population of Canton grew by 60 percent between 1990 and 2000 as the city became a bedroom community for Atlanta.
Courtesy of Cherokee County Historical Society
Passengers await a train at the U&N Depot in Canton around 1910. The arrival of the first railroad in 1879 brought tourists to the town, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, during the summer months.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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Built in 1906, the Rock Barn in Canton was one of only a few rock barns to be constructed in Georgia. The Rock Barn is made of rock quarried from the banks of the Etowah River and originally served as a race horse stable.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Walton County Courthouse in Monroe was designed in the Second Empire style and completed in 1884. The courthouse has undergone several renovations since its construction, including the addition of a clock tower in 1910 and extensive restoration work in both 1933 and 1996.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Wagons carry bales of cotton along Cherokee Street in Social Circle. Cotton was a major cash crop in Walton County during the nineteenth century, and cotton mills were first established there in the 1840s.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wlt041-82.
The living area in the William Harris Family Farmstead in Walton County. Located in the community of Campton, the farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Image from S P Photography
Incorporated as a village in 1832, Social Circle today thrives as a community of about 3,400 residents. The town is located in Walton County about forty-five miles east of Atlanta.
Image from Clevergrrl
A commemorative stamp honoring Moina Belle Michael, a Walton County native and originator of the red memorial poppy, was first issued in November 1948. After World War I, paper poppies were sold and worn on Remembrance Day (Armistice Day), held on the second Sunday in November in Britain, to fund soldier rehabilitation.
Courtesy of Smithsonian National Postal Museum
The Screven County Courthouse, the fourth to be built in Sylvania, was completed in 1964 and replaced a two-story brick building constructed in 1897, which was destroyed in a fire that same year.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton pays tribute to the works of Joel Chandler Harris, an Eatonton native and the writer of the Uncle Remus folktales. The museum includes paintings and various memorabilia of the Uncle Remus stories.
The Putnam County Courthouse in Eatonton was first constructed in 1824, and extensive renovations were completed in 1906 and 1994. The building, designed in the Neoclassical Revival style, is situated on one of the largest town squares in the state.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Putnam County resident W. A. Walton Sr. stands beside his Jersey cow in the 1920s. The dairy industry became an important contributor to the county's economy after the 1876 establishment of Panola Farm, an experimental dairy founded by Benjamin Hunt.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The Elder Mill Covered Bridge in Oconee County was constructed in 1897 and relocated to its current position south of Watkinsville during the 1920s. One of the last of its kind in the state, the bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Photograph by Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Located in downtown Watkinsville, the Oconee County Courthouse was completed in 1939. Designed in the stripped classical style, the building was constructed by the Works Progress Administration.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Elder Mill Covered Bridge, in Oconee County, is pictured circa 1975.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
oco001.
Several buildings remain on the original campus of Mercer University in Greene County. A Baptist institution, Mercer University was founded in Penfield in 1833 and moved to Macon in 1871. The community of Penfield was eventually absorbed by nearby Union City after the school's relocation.
Photograph by Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
The historic Bethesda Baptist Church in Greene County was founded in 1785 in the town of Union Point. The sanctuary, which today contains the remains of a slave gallery, was constructed in 1818.
Photograph by Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Ruins of the Scull Shoals Company Store stand in the Oconee National Forest in Greene County. Scull Shoals, founded in 1782, was a thriving mill community until its destruction by fires, floods, and the Civil War (1861-65).
Photograph by Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
White Plains Baptist Church was organized in 1806 in Greene County, and the current sanctuary dates to 1887. Both Blacks and whites worshipped in the church together between 1812 and 1869.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The remains of a bridge are visible in the Oconee River at Scull Shoals, circa 1977. Once a mining town, the Scull Shoals area, home to a thriving mining industry and community before the Civil War, is now part of the Oconee National Forest in Greene County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
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The steamship J. J. Seay lands at the convergence of the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers at Rome in Floyd County around 1850.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
flo051.
After the Civil War, the growing economy of Floyd County relied heavily on cotton production. The cotton block in Rome, pictured in the 1890s, was located at the corner of Second Avenue and Broad Street.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
flo045.
The current Floyd County Courthouse, built in Rome in 1995, is the county's sixth courthouse. The building functions as a multipurpose government facility, housing offices for various agencies in addition to the county and superior courts.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The current Rabun County Courthouse in Clayton was built in 1967. Among the renovations completed since that time are the additions of a second floor and cupola, as well as a new entrance.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A small waterfall along Moccasin Creek, in Rabun County, is located near the Moccasin Creek State Park.
Image from Jeff Moore
The York House, located near Passover in Rabun County, is the oldest continuously operating bed-and-breakfast in Georgia. Founded in 1896, the inn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # rab182.
Lillian Smith, a prominent writer and opponent of segegation during the Jim Crow era, is pictured in the 1940s with workmen at Laurel Falls Girls Camp in Rabun County. Smith served as director of the camp from around 1925 until 1949.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
rab355.
Rufus L. Moss, cofounder of the town Tallulah Falls, built his home Pine Terrace there in 1879. The house later served as an auxiliary building for the Tallulah Falls School, founded in 1909, and then as the Tallulah Tea Room restaurant. Privately owned again by 2015, the home underwent renovations to restore its nineteenth-century character.
Courtesy of Rabun Gap Historical Society
A carriage waits outside of Hack's Drugstore in Ludowici in 1905, the same year in which the town was incorporated.The seat of Long County, Ludowici was originally named Johnston Station.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # lon002.
The Long County Courthouse was built in Ludowici in 1926, six years after the county's creation from the western portion of Liberty County. The original courthouse is still in use today.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Franklin tree or lost camellia (Franklinia alatamaha), once native only to Georgia, was discovered along the banks of the Altamaha River in the mid-eighteenth century and was last recorded in the wild by nurseryman and plant collector in 1803. All known specimens today are in cultivation.
Photograph from Francine Riez, Wikimedia
The Henry County Courthouse in McDonough, designed in the Romanesque revival style by architect J. W. Golucke, was completed in 1897. A Confederate monument stands in front of the courthouse, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Host to several NASCAR events each year, the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Henry County is the most-visited sports facility in Georgia.
Image from Alex Ford
Men gather outside of a store in Hampton, located in Henry County, around 1900. The town was a thriving agricultural community early in the twentieth century, but the economy of Hampton and the surrounding area would suffer after the boll weevil invasion of 1920.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hnr009-94.
James Weldon Johnson, noted Harlem Renaissance poet and civil rights leader, graduated from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1894. While a student in Atlanta, Johnson also taught school for two summers in nearby Hampton.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Workers stand outside of a turpentine still in Bacon County around 1900. The still was owned by American Tie and Timber Company.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # gly002.
The Bacon County Courthouse, built in Alma in 1919, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Completed five years after the county's creation, the original courthouse is still in use today.
Courtesy of Dan Bowman
The current Washington County Courthouse, located in Sandersville, was completed in 1869. Additions were made to the courthouse in 1899 and 1939, and it was renovated twice during the 1970s and 1980s.
The medical and nursing staffs of Rawlings Sanitarium in Sandersville gather circa 1907. William Rawlings (center right) founded the sanitarium in 1895. In 1961 the sanitarium moved to a new facility, known today as the Washington County Regional Medical Center.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
was071.
Thiele Kaolin Company, headquartered in Sandersville, extracts kaolin from this mine. Once the ore has been extracted, mine reclamation activities are conducted to restore the landscape to a pristine state.
Courtesy of UGA Archway Partnership
Washington County, Georgia (date unknown)Â by John McWilliams is part of Georgia's State Art Collection. Photograph, 14 3/4 x 19 inches
Courtesy of Georgia Council for the Arts, Georgia's State Art Collection.
Acquired by Georgia in 1825 and established as a park in 1927, Indian Springs State Park claims to be the oldest state park in the nation. The medicinal properties of the springs were enjoyed by the earliest Native American inhabitants of the region. Today the park offers a variety of recreational activities, including camping and fishing.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The Butts County Courthouse in Jackson was built in 1898 to replace the courthouse burned by Union general William T. Sherman on his March to the Sea in 1864. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the courthouse was designed with elements of the High Victorian Eclectic and colonial revival styles.
Photograph by C Smith
The McIntosh Inn, built in 1823 at Indian Springs in Butts County by Creek leader William McIntosh, thrived as a popular resort until the 1930s. In 1825 McIntosh signed the Treaty of Indian Springs with the U.S. government at the hotel; he was murdered three months later by angry Creeks who considered the agreement a betrayal.
Photograph by Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Beginning in the 1840s, a number of waterwheel-powered mills, including the Indian Springs Gristmill, appeared along the rivers of Butts County. Because of its easy access to water transportation, the county became an industrial community well in advance of other areas in the state.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
but010.
High Falls State Park, near Jackson in Butts County, is a popular destination along the Towaliga River for camping and boating. The town of High Falls, established in the early 1800s, became a ghost town during the 1880s, when the railroads gained prominence over waterways for commercial transportation.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
This historic grist mill is located in Sparta, the seat of Hancock County. Agriculture, mainly cotton production, was the main economic force in Sparta during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
William Terrell, the founder and first president of the Hancock Planters Club, was a prominent resident of Sparta during the first half of the nineteenth century. His Federal-style home still stands in the town today.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
Amanda America Dickson, the daughter of an enslaved woman and her enslaver, became one of the wealthiest Black women in nineteenth-century America when the Georgia Supreme Court upheld her claim to her father's contested will. Dickson inherited his estate in Hancock County upon his death in 1885.
Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society.
The original Lee County courthouse was built in Starksville, the county's first seat, around 1837. The courthouse burned between 1856 and 1858, and the seat was later moved to Leesburg, a thriving railroad town, in 1872.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lee003.
The original Lee County Courthouse was built in Starksville, the county's first seat, around 1837. The courthouse burned between 1856 and 1858, and the seat was later moved to Leesburg, a thriving railroad town, in 1872.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Throughout the nineteenth century, the Benton Supply Company prospered in Monticello, selling clothing, buggies, and other necessities to the townspeople. Today the renovated building houses Monticello's city hall and visitors' center.
Courtesy of Lucille M. Harvey
The Henry County Courthouse presides over a street in downtown McDonough. The seat of Henry County, McDonough was incorporated in 1823 and boasts several historic homes. Each year the city hosts the Geranium Festival in the spring and the Henry County Fair in the fall.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The Joshua Hill House, one of the many antebellum homes in Madison, was built around 1840 for U.S. congressman Joshua Hill, who may have convinced Union general William T. Sherman to spare the town during his March to the Sea. Today it is part of the Madison Historic District.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The Madison Collegiate Institute, founded in Madison in 1849, was one of the first women's colleges in the country. The school's main building, to the right, burned before 1880. The building to the left has been renovated and today serves as a private residence.
Courtesy of Adelaide Wallace Ponder
Built in 1896, the Madison Elementary School was one of the first brick school buildings in the state. Today the structure houses the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, a space devoted to the visual, performing, and decorative arts.
Courtesy of Adelaide Wallace Ponder
The Madison Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.Â
A late-nineteenth-century delivery wagon for South Side Grocery stands in a Statesboro street. By the 1890s, the town had become a commercial hub for Bulloch County, as the railroads brought in new retail merchants and agricultural markets opened for regional farmers.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
bul050.
The Bulloch County courthouse, located in Statesboro, was designed by Bruce & Morgan in 1894, with renovations by J. Bruyn Kops in 1914. The exterior of the neoclassical revival courthouse was covered with white plaster in the 1960s, much of which remains and has been painted a red brick color.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Archibald Bulloch was a Revolutionary soldier, a leader of Georgia's Liberty Party, and the state's first chief executive and commander in chief. Bulloch County in southeast Georgia was named for him upon its creation in 1796.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
This schoolhouse, built in Newton in the 1930s, was remodeled in 2000 to serve as the permanent courthouse for Baker County. The county's historic courthouse was damaged in 1994, when it was flooded to nearly the second floor by the Flint River.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Atlanta has served as the capital city of Georgia since 1868. The current gold-domed capitol building, completed in 1889, houses the General Assembly in downtown Atlanta.
Courtesy of Georgia Info, Digital Library of Georgia.
Although the precise locations of state legislature meetings in Savannah are not known, this building may have served as one meeting place for the assembly. From 1777 to 1784, Savannah served as the state capital on a rotating basis with Augusta.
The burning of the Yazoo Act, which resulted in the Yazoo land fraud of 1795, took place on the grounds of the capitol building in Louisville. Louisville served as the state capital from 1796 until 1806, when the legislature moved to Milledgeville.
The state capitol in Milledgeville, pictured circa 1850, housed the General Assembly from 1807 until 1868 and was the site of the state's secession convention in 1861. Known today as the "Old Capitol Building," the structure currently houses Georgia Military College and the Antebellum Capitol Museum.
The old Atlanta City Hall, shown here in 1864, served as the first state capitol building in the city during the last half of 1868. Today the current capitol building stands on the site of the old city hall, on a hill in downtown Atlanta.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
The Kimball Opera House housed the state legislature in Atlanta from 1869 until 1889. Constructed by brothers Edwin N. Kimball and H. I. Kimball, the building was purchased by the state in 1870.
The Lawrenceville Female Seminary was incorporated by the state legislature in 1837. This building, shown in 2004, was built in approximately 1855. Today it houses the Gwinnett History Museum.
Photograph by Jim Baughman
The Sims brothers, pictured in 1915, carried out logging operations near Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County at a time when the local economy was primarily agricultural.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
gwn302.
The Gwinnett County courthouse, built in 1885 in Lawrenceville, is one of architect Edmund Lind's many important buildings in Georgia.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Pictured in the distance is the Senior Center at Rhodes Jordan Park in Lawrenceville, which is located in Gwinnett County.
Photograph by Jim Baughman
The Lawrenceville Female Seminary, located in Gwinnett County and incorporated in 1837, was destroyed by fire and replaced by this building around 1855. Today the building houses the Gwinnett History Museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #gwn233.
The current courthouse in Thomas County was constructed in 1858 and remodeled thirty years later. Located in the county seat of Thomasville, the courthouse is a three-story brick building designed in the Greek revival style.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Thomasville became a popular resort town during the 1860s for wealthy northerners seeking a milder climate during the winter months. The Masury Hotel (left foreground) was constructed at the corner of Broad and Jefferson streets in 1889 to accommodate such visitors.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
tho106.
A portion of the Southern Railroad known as the North Broad Curve, photographed in 1908, winds through Stephens County near Toccoa. Economic growth in Toccoa, which was dubbed the "Furniture, Thread, and Steel City," was spurred by its close proximity to the railroad running between Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
stp044.
The Stephens County Courthouse was built in 2000 across the street from the original courthouse in Toccoa. The older structure, completed in 1908, was restored in 2008.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Traveler's Rest in Toccoa once stood on Georgia's western frontier; the Cherokee Nation comprised the lands to the west. Built in the early 1800s by a white frontiersman, the inn is notable for its ninety-foot-long porch. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
Paul Anderson, a heavyweight champion from Toccoa known as "the Dixie Derrick," lifts two beauty pageant contestants in the 1950s or 1960s. In 1955 Anderson became the first lifter to press more than 400 pounds.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
clq113.
The Jekyll Island Club, a hunting club and resort for wealthy northeastern businessmen, was completed in 1887. The club closed during World War II and today is part of the Jekyll Island State Park.
Courtesy of Jekyll Island Museum
The Glynn County Courthouse, designed in a neoclassical revival style and completed in 1991, is the fourth documented courthouse to be built in the county. The W. Harold Pate Courthouse Annex was built several blocks away from the courthouse in Brunswick during the mid-1990s.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Tourists on St. Simons Island gather outside one of the island's many shops. The island suffered an economic depression at the end of the cotton era in the 1830s, but its fortunes reversed with the arrival of the timber industry in the 1870s. Today St. Simons enjoys a strong tourist industry.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia.
This postcard from around 1928 depicts the motor entrance to the Cloister, a luxury hotel on Sea Island. Owned today by the Sea Island Company, the island is a retreat for celebrities and world leaders.
Courtesy of Sea Island Company
J. Roy Duggan, a board chairman for King Shrimp Company in Brunswick, displays his catch of spotted bass and trout on St. Simons Island around 1950. At left are J. O. Hice and his wife. Hice cofounded the SeaPak Corporation, a coastal Georgia seafood company that is known today as the Rich-Seapak Corporation.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
gly017.
Little St. Simons Island, consisting mostly of low tidal salt marsh with forested upland tracts on its eastern (ocean) side, is privately owned and is accessible only by water.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Taloney Mission (later Carmel Mission) was founded by the Georgia Presbyterians in Pickens County along Talking Rock Creek. The Presbyterians established and ran a number of mission schools throughout Georgia from 1817 to 1833. The remains of the Taloney Mission were photographed between 1930 and 1960.
The Pickens County Courthouse in Jasper was constructed in 1949 with marble quarried in nearby Tate. This courthouse, designed in a stripped classical style, is the third in the county's history.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A train arrives at the Blue Ridge Marble Company about 1910. Later renamed Georgia Marble, the company was active in Cherokee and Pickens counties during the growth of the marble industry between the arrival of the railroads in the 1880s and the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pck077-82a.
Workers for the Georgia Marble Company sit for a portrait during the 1920s at the Marblehill Quarry in Pickens County. Marble from Pickens County is reported to have been used in around 60 percent of the monuments in Washington, D.C.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pck018-82.
The second Pickens County Courthouse, pictured circa 1890, was built in 1888. Located in Jasper, the courthouse was in use until 1947, when it was destroyed by a fire.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pck130-82.
The most popular apple varieties grown in Georgia include Empire, Fuji, Granny Smith, Jonagold, Jonathan, Ozark Gold, Paulard, Red Delicious, Rome Beauty, and Yates. The Annual Apple Festival, hosted each October in Ellijay, features a crafts show and vendors selling a variety of apple products.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
A train with the L and N Railroad makes a stop in Cherokee County in 1906. Gilmer County, which was cut from Cherokee County in 1832, enjoyed a growth in the timber industry after the arrival of the railroad in 1884, resulting in a stronger connection between Ellijay and the rest of the state.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # crk025.
The wilderness of the Chattahoochee National Forest attracts a number of hikers, hunters, and other outdoor enthusiasts to nearby Ellijay each year.
Image from John W. Iwanski
The Chattooga County Courthouse, located in Summerville, was built in 1909 to replace the original 1840 courthouse. This neoclassical revival structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A Central of Georgia Railway train makes a stop in Chattooga County around 1912. The county residents, primarily farmers at this time, relied on the railroad to ship produce, especially strawberries, to markets as far north as Cincinnati, Ohio.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
ctg003.
In 1982 Howard Finster acquired a small church adjacent to his Paradise Garden in Chattooga County and transformed it into his "World's Folk Art Church." Pictured in 2014, the church and garden fell into serious disrepair after Finster's death, but restoration efforts began in 2010.
Photograph by Sarah E. McKee, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Allen D. Candler served as governor of Georgia from 1898 to 1902 and was a resident of Banks County. Candler County, created in southeast Georgia in 1914, was named for him.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
The Candler County Courthouse, located in Metter, was built in 1921. Designed in a neoclassical revival style by J. J. Baldwin, the courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Bleckley County Courthouse, located in Cochran, was built in 1914 in a neoclassical revival style. Renovations and several additions have been made to the building since its original construction, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
In February 1901 more than six inches of snow fell on the Southern Railroad tracks through Cochran, the seat of Bleckley County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
ble004.
Students gather outside of Walker Hall on the campus of Middle Georgia College, a two-year residential college located in Cochran.
Courtesy of Ellis-Harper Advertising
Bleckley County African American school before the Works Progress Administration Program started in 1936.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Works Progress Administration in Georgia, 1936.
Bleckley County African American school after it was completed in 1936 as a part of the Works Progress Administration Program, under the New Deal in Georgia.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Works Progress Administration in Georgia, 1936.
The Battle of Chickamauga, one of the major battles of the Civil War, is commemorated at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, the largest military park in the United States. The town of Chickamauga is located at the base of Lookout Mountain in Georgia and serves as an important tourist attraction in the state.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia.
The town of Chickamauga began along Crawfish Springs as a plantation owned by James Gordon. The creek was named for Chief Crayfish, the leader of the Tsikamagi Cherokee who occupied Chickamauga until their forced removal in 1838 along the Trail of Tears.
Courtesy of City of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga took place on September 18-20, 1863, during the Civil War. Around 34,000 soldiers lost their lives in a battle that was declared a decisive Confederate victory. Today the streets of Chickamauga are named for Confederate and Union generals.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection.
The town of Chickamauga celebrates its annual Down Home Days festival on the first weekend in May. Participants enjoy concerts, food, dancing, parades, and shopping for arts and crafts.
Courtesy of City of Chickamauga
Alligators, which are native to Georgia, are among the hundreds of animal species to make their home in the Okefenokee Swamp.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The first courthouse in Folkston, built after the town was designated as the county seat in 1901, burned down in 1928. The current courthouse, designed in Neoclassical Revival and Georgian Revival styles, was built during the same year. An annex to the building was constructed in 1978.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
A swamp alligator suns on a log in the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge. The Okefenokee Swamp is one of the major attractions in Charlton County.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Geoff L. Johnson.
The Brantley County Courthouse was built in 1930 in Nahunta, which was selected in 1923 over the town of Hoboken to be the county seat. An addition to the original building was constructed in 1978.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Sacred Harp singers Julie and Kathy Lee participate in the 2001 Hoboken Singing Day. The Library of Congress Local Legacies project has identified the "Hoboken style" of Sacred Harp singing as a distinctive form, which likely resulted from the town's relative isolation for much of its history.
Courtesy of Julie and Kathy Lee
The Tift County Courthouse, located in Tifton, was completed in 1913. Designed by W. A. Edwards, it is the only courthouse ever to be constructed in Tift County.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Second District Agricultural and Mechanical School, shown here in 1918, was established in 1908 as a high school in Tift County. In 1933 the school was renamed Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, which is today the largest residential two-year college in Georgia.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #tif005.
Cordele, the seat of Crisp County, is known as the "Watermelon Capital of the World." Farmers in the county ship more than 125 million watermelons to markets around the United States. Other major crops raised in the Cordele area include pecans, peaches, and peanuts.
Image from Michael Rivera
The old Suwannee Hotel in Cordele was founded in 1890 at the family home of Confederate governor Joseph E. Brown. Fomerly known as Dooly County Place, the home provided a haven for Brown as he fled from Sherman's troops near the end of the Civil War. The original hotel burned in 1994 and has since been rebuilt.
Courtesy of Crisp County Chamber of Commerce
Beginning in 1898 Andrew Carnegie, a steel magnate and philanthropist, donated thousands of dollars to establish libraries across Georgia. The Carnegie library in Cordele, which opened in 1915, became the first library in the state to offer countywide service.
Image from Michael Rivera
The Old White County Courthouse in Cleveland was built in 1859 with bricks fired locally at the base of Yonah Mountain and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today it houses the White County Historical Society.
Courtesy of White County Chamber of Commerce
Cleveland, known as the "Gateway to the Mountains," was named Mount Yonah until 1870, when the town was renamed in honor of General Benjamin Cleveland. Today both the population and business sector in Cleveland are growing steadily.
Image from Michael Rivera
Cabbage Patch Kids await "adoption" at Babyland General Hospital, which is located in Cleveland and offers tours to the public. Each doll is given a unique appearance, personality description, name, and birthday.
Courtesy of Babyland General Hospital, Cleveland
Believed to have belonged to the ancestors of U.S. president Jimmy Carter, the Rock House was built in Thomson in 1785, making it one of the oldest houses in Georgia. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
The Thomson Depot, built around 1860 and located in the center of Thomson's commercial historic district, today houses the Thomson-McDuffie Chamber of Commerce and a community center.
Courtesy of Steve Storey
Guests gather outside the Knox Hotel in Thomson around 1910. The hotel, originally known as the Greenway Hotel, was built around 1850 by Joseph Henry Stockton to serve passengers coming through town on the railroad. It was later purchased and renamed by Charles Edward Knox in 1882.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #mcd023.
Georgia politician Thomas E. Watson purchased a home in Thomson in 1881 and lived there until 1904. The home is now a National Historic Landmark and serves as the administrative headquarters for the Watson-Brown Foundation.
Courtesy of Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc.
Cars line a main thoroughfare in downtown Fort Gaines in the late 1940s. Growth in Fort Gaines was slow from the end of the Civil War until 1955, when construction began on the Walter F. George Lock and Dam.
Courtesy of Linda Morgan
The steamship Queen City, constructed and later dismantled in Columbus, docks in 1900 with a load of cotton bales at the Sutlive Warehouse in Fort Gaines. Known as the "Queen City of the Chattahoochee," Fort Gaines was an important stop for the riverboat trade along the Chattahoochee River.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
cly026.
The business district of Fort Gaines, the seat of Clay County, is pictured in 1918.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
cly014.
Residents of Ellaville gather downtown for a springtime celebration. The Schley County Courthouse is visible in the background.
Courtesy of The Tri-County Journal
The Schley County Courthouse was built in 1899 in the Romanesque revival style. Nearly a century later, the structure, located in Ellaville, underwent modern renovation.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Election day in Kingsland, Camden County, in the early 1960s, before the advent of voting booths. Georgia's elections were governed by the county unit system, which gave more weight to rural votes than to urban votes, until 1962. Even though they were home to a minority of Georgians, rural counties usually decided the winners of statewide elections.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
cam368.
Griffin Bell, left, with hand raised, is sworn in as U.S. attorney general under President Jimmy Carter (far left) in January 1977. In 1962 Bell headed a judicial panel that ruled Georgia's county unit system of voting to be in violation of the "one man, one vote" principle. His decision forced the change of a system that had been in place since 1917 and had given disproportionate voting power to rural counties.
Photograph from the National Archives and Records Administration
The Helen Mine was one of nine gold mines operating in White County after the discovery of gold in 1828 around Duke's Creek (later the Nacoochee River). This photograph was taken around 1900.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
stp019.
The modern-style White County courthouse was built in Cleveland in 1964. It is the county's second courthouse.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Helen, founded in 1911, was a thriving lumber-mill and mining town until the Gainesville and Northwestern Railroad shut down in the early 1930s. In 1969 the town was revitalized by local business owners, who created a tourist destination by converting Helen into a Bavarian-style village.
Photograph by Stormtrooper WB
Mount Yonah, known as one of the best areas for rock climbing in Georgia, is located between Cleveland and Helen in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Geoff L. Johnson.
A family gathers for a photograph, taken around 1906, in front of their home in White County. The house on the left was used for a kitchen and was connected to the main house by a breezeway.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # wht003.
Young boys pose atop a car in White County, in 1917.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #wht004.
Mount Yonah, located in White County between Cleveland and Helen, is best known for its granite outcrops, formed by granite magma intruding the overlying stacks of metamorphic rocks about 375 million years ago. The outcrops are one of the favorite spots for rock climbers in the state.
Image from Andrew Partain
This rail caboose sits on display in Millen and serves as a reminder of the railroad's importance to the development of this community. First called 79 and then Millen's Junction, the town of Millen served as the connection between the railways going to Savannah and Augusta.
Courtesy of Theron Cates, Millen
The train depot in Millen, in Jenkins County, was destroyed by Union forces during the Civil War and later rebuilt. Today the depot houses the "Olde Freight Depot Museum."
Courtesy of Theron Cates, Millen
Workers use an old Linotype machine, pictured at left, around 1932. The Millen News plant was located in the Lane Building on Winthrope Avenue.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
jnk097.
Businesses along the main thoroughfare in downtown Millen face the very railroad tracks that spurred the town's growth. Today the agriculture and lumber industries drive Millen's economy.
Courtesy of Theron Cates, Millen
Magnolia Springs State Park near Millen provides a number of outdoor recreational activities for Jenkins County residents and visitors. The park also houses a freshwater aquarium.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
Charles Thomas School, the first school in Warner Robins, opened in 1945. The school closed in 1994 and in 2001 was donated by the city to Macon State College for its campus at Warner Robins.
Courtesy of William P. Head
Development during World War II transformed Warner Robins, in Houston County, from a small farming town into an industrialized military community. By the time this aerial photograph was taken in 1955, the population of Warner Robins had grown to nearly 20,000.
Image from David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries, David Rumsey Map Collection.
This open field in 1941 provided the site for the flight line at Robins Air Force Base. The official groundbreaking occurred in September 1941.
Courtesy of William P. Head
This telegram to the Macon Chamber of Commerce, dated June 16, 1941, announces that the U.S. War Department has chosen Wellston (later Warner Robins), Georgia, as the site for a new air corps depot.
Courtesy of William P. Head
The Warner Robins railroad depot was created during World War II and became a critical site for the war effort. The town of Warner Robins grew up around the depot.
Image from Jud McCranie, Wikimedia Commons
This photograph of downtown Warner Robins was taken in 1947 or 1948. Following World War II, the workforce of Robins Field dropped from 23,670 to 3,900. The workforce increased during the cold war, and the city's population by 2010 was more than 66,000.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hou081.
The Ray Charles Plaza, unveiled in December 2007, stands on the bank of the Flint River in downtown Albany. The lighted bronze statue, created by scupltor Andy Davis, commemorates the legacy of musician Ray Charles, who was born in Albany in 1930.
Photograph by Meg Inscoe
Protestors march in Albany during the Albany Movement, an effort to desegregate the city that lasted from fall 1961 to summer 1962.
In 1858 Nelson Tift commissioned Horace King to build this bridge in Albany across the Flint River. In 1887 Tift sold the bridge to Dougherty County. Shown here in 1892, the bridge was destroyed in 1897 when the Flint overflowed its banks during a flood.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # dgh243-86.
In 1836 northern merchant and entrepreneur Nelson Tift founded Albany, Georgia, a place later referred to as the heart of the state's Cotton Kingdom.
Workers harvest pecans in 1918 at the Barnwell Pecan Orchards along the Flint River near Albany. In the late nineeteenth century, farmers in Albany began to replace cotton with pecans as their primary commercial crop.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # dgh161.
The federal courthouse in Albany, named for civil rights attorney C. B. King, was designed by architect J. W. Robinson in 1992 and completed in 2002. It may be the first federal courthouse in the United States to be designed by an African American architect.
Courtesy of Jeffrey L. Robinson
This painting depicts McCranie's Turpentine Still, which operated from 1925 to 1949 in Willacoochee. The still is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Painting by Ken Brauner, Eugene, Oregon
Completed in 1920, the courthouse in Atkinson County is located in Pearson, the county seat. Built in a neoclassical revival style, the courthouse was renovated during the early 1980s.
Photograph by J Stephen Conn
Located on private property south of Lula in Banks County, this covered bridge is the smallest in Georgia and one of the smallest in the United States. Originally built in 1915, the bridge was in service until 1969 and renovated in 1975.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Transportation
The Banks County courthouse in Homer was built in 1987 to replace the county's original courthouse, which was constructed during the Civil War. The new courthouse stands on the block directly behind the site of the original courthouse.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
This gristmill, located along the Grove River in Banks County, was built in 1910 and operated until the 1950s. Today the primary industries in the county are the poultry and textile industries.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
ban010.
In 1911 the state of Georgia opened a public sanatorium in Banks County for the treatment of tuberculosis. The sanatorium was the state's most ambitious health project up to that time, and marked a new interest in public health, a product of the Progressive era.
From History of Public Health in Georgia, 1733-1950, by T. F. Abercrombie
A bronze statue of Ty Cobb, created by Felix de Weldon in 1977, stands at the north entrance of Turner Field in Atlanta and depicts the baseball legend sliding into a base. Nicknamed the "Georgia Peach," Cobb, a native of Banks County, played for the Detroit Tigers from 1905 until 1926.
Image from David
A crowd on North Patterson Street in Valdosta gathers around a sports roadster in about 1920. Tourists began visiting Valdosta during the 1920s with the opening of the Dixie Highway (now U.S. Highway 41), which runs from Chicago, Illinois, to Miami, Florida.
Courtesy Lowndes County Historical Society
Valdosta, incorporated in 1860, is Georgia's eleventh largest city. The city has completed a number of reconstruction projects in the downtown area, and four Valdosta districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Image from Valdosta-Lowndes MPO
Cotton farmers in 1900 bring their harvest to the Cotton Exchange on Hill Avenue in Valdosta. Valdosta served as a major inland market for the long-staple cotton that was grown, beginning in the 1880s, throughout Lowndes County.
Courtesy Lowndes County Historical Society
Trolley tracks run through an affluent Valdosta neighborhood along North Patterson Street in 1905. During the early years of the twentieth century the city adopted a number of modern conveniences, including electric street lights and telephone service.
Courtesy Lowndes County Historical Society
The city hall in Valdosta is housed in a former federal building, which was constructed during the early twentieth century. Other buildings constructed around that same time include a Carnegie library, an opera house, and the current county courthouse.
Photograph by Wikimedia
The Crescent in Valdosta is the restored Neoclassical home of Senator William S. West and serves today as the headquarters for the city's garden club. Constructed between 1897 and 1899, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Image from Judson McCranie
The 'Dosta Playhouse, located on North Ashley Street in downtown Valdosta, is home to the Theatre Guild Valdosta, one of the many cultural offerings in the city.
Image from Daniel Mayer
Agriculture has been the leading economic activity in Moultrie since the turn of the twentieth century. Two men, Norman Thomas (left) and J. E. Ladson, stand in front of a load of tobacco that has been brought to a warehouse in Moultrie during the 1940s.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # clq245.
Moultrie's thriving downtown features a square, the Colquitt County Courthouse, and the Moultrie Commercial Historic District, which is listed along with eight other structures on the National Register of Historic Places.
Courtesy of City of Moultrie
The Spring Fling and Backyard BBQ takes places each April in Moultrie and features concerts and various contests, including a barbecue competition.
Courtesy of City of Moultrie
Fishing piers and picnic areas provide recreational opportunities along Lake Patrick, one of the many lakes to be found at the Paradise Public Fishing Area in Berrien County.
Photograph by Noel Jackson. Courtesy of Paradise Public Fishing Area
The Berrien County Courthouse is located in Nashville, the county seat. Built in 1898 and still in use today, the courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Old Berrien County Jail in Nashville is one of four buildings in the county that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Also included on the register are the courthouse and the William G. Harrison/Eulalie Taylor House in Nashville, and the Alapaha Colored School in Alapaha.
Image from Wenda Gaile Bailey
A postcard depicts Ernest M. Viquesney's sculpture, Spirit of the American Doughboy, which stands in downtown Waycross. Viquesney produced more than 150 of these statues for towns across Georgia between 1921 and 1943.
Courtesy of Todd Womack
Rome's city hall building, constructed in 1915, is one of the renovated historic sites that led the National Trust for Historic Preservation to present the city with a 2003 Great American Main Street Award. Other structures that underwent renovation include two nineteenth-century courthouses and the 1911 Carnegie library building.
Photograph by George Pullen
The Capitoline Wolf, a replica of the famous Etruscan statue, stands before city hall in Rome. The statue portrays Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome, Italy, who, according to legend, were cast away as infants and raised by a wolf. The Italian goverment presented the replica as a gift to the city in 1929.
Photograph by George Pullen
Rome, the seat of Floyd County, is situated along the Coosa River at the confluence of the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers. Founded in 1834, Rome was rated the Southeast's most liveable small city in 1997.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia.
Steamboat trade was an integral part of Rome's economy during the eighteenth century. This steamboat, the Sidney Smith, was docked at Rome's Cotton Block between 1870 and 1880 with a load of cotton bales.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
flo105.
Construction of the river lock at Mayo's Bar was completed in 1913. By this time trains had replaced steamboats as the primary shipping and transportation method in Rome, and most boats on the river were used for recreation.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
flo133.
Union officers assemble in Rome during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #flo075.
Considered to be Rome's signature landmark, the Clocktower functioned as a water reservoir upon its construction in 1871. The water tower was built with ten sheets of iron provided by James Noble's foundry and had a capacity of 250,000 gallons. In 1995 a musuem within the Clocktower opened to the public.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
James Noble, whose foundry produced cannons and other equipment for the Confederacy, led efforts to rebuild Rome following the Civil War. This lathe from the foundry is currently situated on Civic Center Hill in Rome.
Photograph by George Pullen
Martha Berry, the daughter of a wealthy Floyd County planter, founded several "Berry Schools" that were established to provide poor children in the north Georgia mountains with the opportunity to earn an education. In 1902 she founded in Rome the school that would become Berry College
Courtesy of Berry College Archives
Suzuki Manufacturing of America is one of the companies contributing to the growing industry of technical metals and automotive parts in Rome. This industry has largely replaced the textile and carpet industry that was prominent in the area during much of the twentieth century.
Photograph by George Pullen
Downtown Rome, the winner of a 2003 Great American Main Street Award, has been preserved by business and property owners as a center of the community despite the loss of retail stores to malls and shopping centers.
Photograph by George Pullen
Ben Hill County's first and only courthouse was built in either 1907 or 1909. Designed by H. H. Huggins in the neoclassical revival style, the building originally featured a clock tower, which was removed during renovations in the 1950s.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The city of Fitzgerald hosts several annual events and festivals, including the Colony City Chase, which takes place each October.
Courtesy of Georgia Studios
Located nine miles southwest of Blakely, in Early County, the Coheelee Creek Covered Bridge is the southernmost covered bridge in the United States. It was built in 1891 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Captain Johnston Blakely, for whom the city of Blakely is named, immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1783 and commanded two ships during the War of 1812. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor after he and his crew disappeared at sea during the war.
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of William H. Huntington, 1883.
A group of Confederate veterans gather in front of the Early County Courthouse, which was built between 1904 and 1905 in Blakely. The last wooden Confederate flagpole in Georgia, erected in 1861, still stands in the courthouse square.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # ear034-82.
The Temple Mound, part of Kolomoki Mounds State Historic Park, is one of the largest in the southeastern United States. The park is located in Blakely.
Image from Courtney McGough
A photograph of a road in Clinton, in Jones County, circa 1900. During this time, and until around 1920, Jones County was mostly farm land and was known for its prolific cotton and peach crops.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #jon109.
Clinton, the first county seat of Jones County, may be the namesake of DeWitt Clinton, the mayor of New York from 1803 to 1815 and the nephew of George Clinton.
George Clinton, the first governor of New York and the vice president under both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, may be the nineteenth-century politician for whom Clinton, the first county seat of Jones County, is named.
This sketch by Telamon Cuyler, made between 1910 and 1918, portrays Gray from the courthouse front door. Gray replaced Clinton as the county seat of Jones County in 1905.
The courthouse, in Gray, was built in 1906 in the Romanesque revival style. It was designed by J. W. Golucke and is noted for its arched clock tower. The courthouse was rehabilitated in 1992.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
This cotton plantation was owned by the Jarrell family for 140 years. Many antebellum furnishings are on display at the historic site, and many outbuildings dating back to about 1900 still stand.
Image from B A Bowen Photography
The Old Clinton Barbecue House, located in Jones County in middle Georgia, has been serving barbecue since 1958.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Geoff L. Johnson.
Frank Butler Black was a farmer, mail carrier, and chairman of the Republican Party in Jones County. He and his wife, Sally Barfield Black, pose at a Macon photographer's studio (ca. 1900).
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
jon079.
A 1926 Porter steam locomotive at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village in Tifton.
Courtesy of Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village
Tifton residents have made historic preservation a priority, and the downtown business district has been well preserved. In the twenty-first century Tifton is still a "gate city" for the region of south Georgia.
Reprinted by permission of Herb Pilcher
Along the right side of Love Avenue in Tifton circa 1904, from near to far, were a multi-use building (Opera House upstairs, Bowen Store downstairs), the Timmons house (which later burned), the Hunter house (later the Timmons house), and a church with steeple.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Albertype Co Photographs.
Henry Tift's sawmill, circa 1900. After the success of the sawmill, Tift expanded his business interests by establishing the Tifton Cotton Mill and the Bank of Tifton.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Albertype Co, Photographs.
A first-grade class on a field trip to the Coastal Plain Experiment Station (later University of Georgia Tifton campus) watches as Mike Cremano feeds a cow.
Courtesy of University of Georgia Tifton campus
These men are rafting timber down the Oconee River in Laurens County, circa 1890.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lau123.
Dublin, circa 1900. A mule-drawn wagon loaded with bales of cotton is stopped in front of J. D. Smith & Son Stables, which was located on North Jackson Street.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lau031.
The Laurens County Courthouse in Dublin, built in 1962, is the fourth courthouse in the county's history.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
This tinted postcard shows the third courthouse to be built in Laurens County. The two-story brick structure was constructed in 1895 and used until 1962, when the current courthouse was completed.
Image from Scott B. Thompson
On July 7, 1914, Barrow County was formed from portions of Gwinnett, Jackson, and Walton counties. Located in Winder, the Barrow County Courthouse was built in 1920.
Photograph by C Smith
The Fort Yargo cabin was built by whites in 1792 for protection against the Creeks and the Cherokees. Today it is used for history encampments at Fort Yargo State Park.
Photograph by Ashley Farrow, Wikimedia Commons
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