Downtown Athens Historic District - - Athens, GA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Athens occupies high ground on the west bank of the Oconee River's North Fork. The downtown district lies within the central business district, adjoining Old North Campus of the University of Georgia. AthensÆs "Main Street" is Broad Street, which runs east/west between the University and the town proper. A gridiron pattern delineates the streets, except for a five points area formed at the intersection of Broad and Thomas streets east of the campus. The district consists of late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings, primarily commercial and institutional, with a few industrial structures. Two- or three-story attached buildings predominate, the majority featuring facades of brick or stucco with storefronts on the ground floor. Stylistic details, representative of diverse architectural manifestations of the period, embellish the upper stories. Larger, detached buildings usually house banks, hotels, or governmental facilities and reflect their stature in the community through more elaborate detailing. Although attempts to modernize some of the early buildings have obscured their original character, new construction generally complements the existing buildings in size and scale. Adaptive use of several buildings' upper floors for loft apartments has recreated the residential flavor of the area. Two commemorative obelisks call attention to the traffic island in the center of Broad Street between Lumpkin Street and College Avenue, and the reintroduction of street trees and landscaping also enhances the appearance of the downtown.

After 39 acres of John Milledge's original 633 acre donation were set aside for a campus, the university trustees periodically sold off the remaining acreage to raise money for operations during the next half century. As successive surveys laid off streets and lots, Athens grew in conjunction with the university. The first settlement of the town occurred generally within the parallelogram formed by Foundry, Front (now Broad), Lumpkin, and Hancock streets; most of the early residences were located within this area, and businesses were established along Front Street and College Avenue. After Clarke County was formed in 1801 and the General Assembly incorporated Athens in 1806, the town expanded rapidly. Prior to the 1820s, only the area east of Lumpkin Street developed, but the town soon became a prosperous commercial and industrial center with the founding of the Georgia Railroad in Athens in 1833 and the beginning of rail service in 1841. Commercial and governmental use multiplied and began to replace residences and open spaces in the district. The streets of vitrified brick, cobblestones, and creosoted wood blocks along with the animal water troughs and the firemenÆs cisterns and the large trees and the residential flavor all gave way to modernization, but the downtown area remained the heart of the city. With the development of the Georgia Square Mall on the Atlanta Highway in 1981, however, the buildings of downtown Athens lost their major department store tenants, such as Davison's (now Macy's), J. C. Penney, and Belks. Sears moved to the new Beechwood Shopping Center. During the following decade, a proliferation of satellite minimalls and office parks further drained the district's resources. More recently, a creative redesign of College Square, financed by the sale of the city's defunct parking deck on Broad Street, has tended to counter these trends and revitalize the downtown district. In 1980 the National Trust for Historic Preservation selected Athens as one of the first five cities in Georgia (and one of the first thirty in the nation) to participate in the Main Street Program, a national program designed specifically to address downtown renewal and the problems of small, historic city centers. Federal tax credits and low interest loans facilitated the Athens downtown renaissance of the early 1980s. As a genuine town center and community gathering place, the Downtown Athens Historic District hosts the Golden Ginkgo Jamboree, Springfest, and the Twilight Criterium and houses a vast array of shops, restaurants, businesses, clubs, offices, and governmental facilities.

The Downtown Athens Historic District contains several sites of individual recognition, including City Hall and the Double Barrel Cannon, Clarke County Courthouse, Franklin House, Georgian Hotel and the Parrott Insurance Building (see Inventory: Part I). Other buildings of individual distinction include the Athens Refrigeration and Appliance Company Building, Citizens and Southern National Bank Building, Fire Station No. 1, First American Bank and Trust Building, First Presbyterian Church, the Georgia Theatre, Harry Bissett Building, Haygood Building, Heery Building, Kerwin Building, Michael Brothers Building, Moss-Heery Building, Moss-Scott Building, Myers Building, National Bank Building, Newton House, Southern Mutual Insurance Building, Tillman Building, Tinsley-Stern House, U.S. Post Office, and Whitmire Furniture Company Building. Of the two stone obelisks standing in the center of Broad Street, one memorializes Elijah Clarke and the Revolutionary War; the other, originally located in the intersection of College and Washington streets, commemorates the Civil War and Clarke CountyÆs Civil War veterans (see Inventory: Part II). Approximately 40 acres in extent as originally nominated, the district boundary was amended to encompass another acre in 1984 (see Downtown Athens Historic District map).

The Downtown Athens Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (August 10, 1978, amended May 31, 1984).

Street address: Roughly bounded by Hancock Ave., Foundry, Mitchell, Broad, and Lumpkin Sts. Athens, GA 30601 County / Borough / Parish: Clarke Year listed: 1978 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering, Event Periods of significance: 1825-1849, 1850-1874, 1875-1899, 1900-1924 Historic function: Commerce/Trade, Domestic, Transportation: Business, Rail-Related, Single Dwelling Current function: Commerce/Trade, Government: Business, City Hall, Courthouse, Government Office Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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