A list of important historic sites in Georgia.
Location: Augusta, Richmond County
Relevant issues: Literary history
Statement of significance: Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943), known for his poetry and short stories, began his writing career in this two-story Federal-style house after moving here in 1911. It now serves as the president’s home for Augusta College.
Location: Rome, Floyd County
Web site: ngeorgia.com/site/chieftains.html
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Built around 1794, this hand-hewn log cabin was purchased by Major Ridge (c. 1770-1839), a Cherokee leader, sometime before 1819 and is incorporated into the present larger house. Ridge himself made the first additions in 1827-1828. Ridge operated a ferry and trading post, was the speaker of the Cherokee National Council, and was a significant advocate of modifying Cherokee ways with Anglo-American culture.
Location: Columbus, Muscogee County
Relevant issues: Science and technology
Statement of significance: Dating from 1844 to 1900, this area physically documents the evolution of hydrotechnology and its contributions to the growth of an important southern textile center. Here is the best surviving concentration of nineteenth and early twentieth century hydromechanical and hydroelectrical engineering systems in the South.
Location: Atlanta, Fulton County
Web site: www.atlanta.org/dept/urban/dixieco .htm#dixie
Relevant issues: Business and industry
Statement of significance: This small brick building served, in 1900-1901, as the headquarters of what has become the Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
Location: Cartersville, Bartow County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: This site is important as an expression of the eastern expansion of Mississippian culture, and of the forms Mississippian culture took as a result of interaction with other Southeastern cultural traditions (c. 1350). It consists of three large platform mounds, a village area, and an encircling ditch or moat.
Location: Milledgeville, Baldwin County
Relevant issues: Political history
Statement of significance: This was the home of Georgia governors when Milledgeville was the state capital from 1804 to 1868. It is distinguished by a Palladian facade with prostyle portico and a plan with round and octagonal rooms.
Location: Atlanta, Fulton County
Relevant issues: Literary history
Statement of significance: Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), author of the Uncle Remus tales, lived here from 1881 until his death in 1908. The house contains many original furnishings.
Location: Augusta, Richmond County
Relevant issues: Business and industry, science and technology
Statement of significance: This district contains an intact canal system and mills constructed from the 1840’s to the 1880’s representative of industrial aspects of the New South. It is the best surviving example of an engineering system singularly important to the southeastern United States.
Location: Blakely, Early County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Excavations have revealed details of burial practices at this type site for the Kolomoki culture (c. 1400-1600). This site contains one of the largest mound groups on the southeastern coastal plain. It is now a state park.
Location: Crawfordville, Taliaferro County
Relevant issues: Political history
Statement of significance: Alexander Stephens (1812-1883), the vice president of the Confederate States of America, who also enjoyed a remarkable political career before and after the Civil War, lived at his Liberty Hall estate from 1834 until his death in 1883.
Location: Savannah, Chatham County
Relevant issues: Cultural history, women’s history
Statement of significance: This is the birthplace and childhood home of Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927), the founder of the Girl Scout movement in the United States. Low held the first meeting in her carriage house. She became the first president of the Girl Scouts after their incorporation in 1915. She lived here until she married William Mackay Low in 1886.
Location: Calhoun, Gordon County
Web site: www.northga.net/gordon/echota.html
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: This was the first national capital of the Cherokees, established in 1825. It was here in 1835 that the Treaty of New Echota was signed, establishing the basic pretext for the final removal of the Cherokee to the West and the Trail of Tears.
Location: Augusta, Richmond County
Relevant issues: Health and medicine
Statement of significance: The Old Medical College is nationally significant because of its impact on the medical instruction of physicians nationwide and its involvement in the establishment of the American Medical Association.
Location: Rossville, Walker County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: This square-timbered two-story log house was the home of John Ross (1790-1866), the Cherokees’ most prominent leader who led his people for forty years as chief executive and primary diplomat. He became chief in 1828, led the delegations of protest and resistance to the policies of removal, and ultimately led the Cherokee Nation in exile beyond the Mississippi on the Trail of Tears.
Location: Augusta, Columbia County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: This is one of the most important shell mound sites in the Southeast, giving information on Archaic Indians who lived in the Savannah River drainage area.
Location: Atlanta, Fulton County
Relevant issues: African American history
Statement of significance: This district was the center of black economic, social, and cultural activities in Atlanta from the 1890’s to the 1930’s. The Sweet Auburn District reflects an important element in the life of the African American community in a segregated South.
Location: Augusta, Richmond County
Relevant issues: Political history
Statement of significance: This was the home of George Walton (1741-1804) from 1791 to 1804. Appointed to the Continental Congress in 1776, at twenty-six he was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. After the war, he served as Georgia’s governor and as a U.S. senator.
Location: Warm Springs, Meriwether County
Relevant issues: Health and medicine, political history
Statement of significance: The district includes two vacation homes (1928-1932 and 1932-1945) of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who found relief from polio in the mineral springs of this small resort town, and the Warm Springs Hospital, founded by Roosevelt to aid fellow victims of the disease. Roosevelt’s efforts led to the March of Dimes. He died at his “Little White House” in Warm Springs on April 12, 1945.