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A More Perfect Union

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Dalton City Hall

Dalton City Hall

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

Dalton, 1890

Dalton, 1890

An aerial photograph, taken in 1890, shows the north end of Dalton, the capital of Whitfield County.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # wtf025.

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Old Whitfield County Courthouse

Old Whitfield County Courthouse

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.

Hamilton Street, Dalton

Hamilton Street, Dalton

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.

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Chenille Bedspreads

Chenille Bedspreads

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

Dalton, 1950s

Dalton, 1950s

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

World Carpets Headquarters

World Carpets Headquarters

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

Downtown Dalton

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

Hamilton Memorial Hospital

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

Dalton, 1940s

Dalton, 1940s

Streetscape of Dalton, the seat of Whitfield County, taken in the 1940s.

Courtesy of Sherry Cady

Glascock County Courthouse

Glascock County Courthouse

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

Talking Rock Country Store

Talking Rock Country Store

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

Talking Rock

Talking Rock

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

Talking Rock Hotel

Talking Rock Hotel

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

Ludville Academy

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.

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Manchester

Manchester

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

Pig Barbecue

Pig Barbecue

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.

Stuart Woods

Stuart Woods

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

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Segregated Railroad Station

Segregated Railroad Station

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.

Callaway Mills, Aerial View

Callaway Mills, Aerial View

An aerial view of Callaway Mills in Manchester.

Courtesy of Troup County Archives, LaGrange, Callaway Educational Association Collection.

Lake Lanier

Lake Lanier

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

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Flowery Branch

Flowery Branch

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.

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Flowery Branch Depot

Flowery Branch Depot

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.

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Plains

Plains

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.

Historic Plains

Historic Plains

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.

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Carter Boyhood Farm

Carter Boyhood Farm

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

Maranatha Baptist Church

Maranatha Baptist Church

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

Downtown Pelham

Downtown Pelham

Pelham, in Mitchell County, was incorporated in 1881 and named for a Civil War soldier.

Photograph by Greg Loyd

Hand Trading Company

Hand Trading Company

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.

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Pelham Television Station

Pelham Television Station

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

Lincoln County Historical Park

Lincoln County Historical Park

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

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Braselton Town Hall

Braselton Town Hall

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

Chateau Elan

Chateau Elan

The Chateau Elan Resort and Winery in Braselton is a major tourist attraction northeast of Atlanta.

Image from Bruce Tuten

Braselton School Bell

Braselton School Bell

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

Road Atlanta

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

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Florence Marina State Park

Florence Marina State Park

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

Evans Boyhood Home

Evans Boyhood Home

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

Bedingfield Inn

Bedingfield Inn

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

Covington

Covington

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

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Covington Monument

Covington Monument

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

In the Heat of the Night

In the Heat of the Night

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).

Dahlonega

Dahlonega

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

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Branch Mint at Dahlonega

Branch Mint at Dahlonega

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

Consolidated Mine Company

Consolidated Mine Company

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.

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Dahlonega Gold Museum

Dahlonega Gold Museum

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.

Dancing Bears

Dancing Bears

Three Frenchmen brought a couple of dancing bears to Dahlonega for a show in 1892.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # lum058.

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Gold Mining

Gold Mining

A gold-mining operation near Dahlonega is pictured circa 1910.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lum211.

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Turpentine Still

Turpentine Still

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.

Lake Chatuge

Lake Chatuge

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

Cumming Country Fair and Festival

Cumming Country Fair and Festival

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

Cumming City Hall

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

Forsyth County Protest

Forsyth County Protest

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.

Downtown Washington

Downtown Washington

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

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Robert Toombs Historic Site

Robert Toombs Historic Site

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.

Heard House

Heard House

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.

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Carnival, Washington

Carnival, Washington

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.

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Sylvania

Sylvania

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

Sylvania Courthouse, ca. 1900

Sylvania Courthouse, ca. 1900

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

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Livestock Festival Parade

Livestock Festival Parade

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

Roberts-McGregor House

Roberts-McGregor House

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.

Joseph Warren

Joseph Warren

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

Old Courthouse

Old Courthouse

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

Colquitt Depot

Colquitt Depot

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.

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Grady County Courthouse

Grady County Courthouse

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.

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Roddenbery Memorial Library

Roddenbery Memorial Library

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.

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Teresa Edwards

Teresa Edwards

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.

Cairo City Hall

Cairo City Hall

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

Webb General Store

Webb General Store

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.

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Reed Bingham State Park

Reed Bingham State Park

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

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Hinesville

Hinesville

Wildflowers grow near Hinesville, the seat of Liberty County.

Image from K e v i n

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M. R. Riviere Drugstore

M. R. Riviere Drugstore

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.

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Bradwell Institute

Bradwell Institute

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.

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Turpentine Still

Turpentine Still

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.

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Entertainment Booth

Entertainment Booth

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.

Main Street

Main Street

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.

Fort Stewart

Fort Stewart

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.

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Greensboro

Greensboro

In 2003 Greensboro was a Main Street Community of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

Greensboro

Greensboro

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.

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Tenant Farmers

Tenant Farmers

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.

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Cotton Exchange

Cotton Exchange

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.

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Greensboro

Greensboro

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.

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Mary-Leila Cotton Mill

Mary-Leila Cotton Mill

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.

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Cotton Mill Worker

Cotton Mill Worker

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

Greene County Courthouse

Greene County Courthouse

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

Russell Appreciation Day

Russell Appreciation Day

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, #
brw091.

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Winder

Winder

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

Winder Depot

Winder Depot

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

Broad Street

Broad Street

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.

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Fort Yargo

Fort Yargo

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.

Oglethorpe

Oglethorpe

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

Eagle Tavern

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

Watkinsville

Watkinsville

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

Elder Mill Covered Bridge

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

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Ludowici

Ludowici

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

Long County Courthouse

Long County Courthouse

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

Ludowici Well Pavilion

Ludowici Well Pavilion

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

Ludowici Billboard

Ludowici Billboard

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.

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Old Fayette County Courthouse

Old Fayette County Courthouse

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

Fayetteville Academy

Fayetteville Academy

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 Society 

Old 87

Old 87

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

Fayetteville Square

Fayetteville Square

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

Old Fayette County Courthouse

Old Fayette County Courthouse