County of building: Carroll County
Location of building: Temple St., between Loft Lane & N. Candler St., Villa Rica
Originally: Merchants and Planters Bank, The Villa Rican Newspaper, a cotton warehouse - then Camp Cap Company
Current: Various: (west to east): The Vape Shop, Vacant, Dav Orrniaton, consultant, Georgia Life Realty, Mirror of Beauty Salon
This block was built as individual store fronts, or buildings for specific purposes...the center store front was built by the Camp Cap Company [their name is still printed on the plate glass front window].
These businesses were built here because the train depot was just south...[no longer there]
As each business folded, the Camp Cap Company acquired the building and kept the front the same but removed the internal walls and expanded the company until they had acquired the entire block.
Today, many of the walls are rebuilt and the store fronts are individual stores again.
"The historic district also includes six buildings that served as commercial cotton warehouses.
Because of the historic district's close proximity to the depot and the demand for short-term storage
of cotton, a significant number and variety of commercial cotton warehouses were built in the first
decades of the 20th century. The smallest warehouses appear like typical one-story brick commercial
buildings. These include the two easternmost buildings in the 200 block of Temple Street. The Masonic Lodge served the needs of the Masonic order on the second floor and utilized
the first floor as a cotton warehouse to take advantage of the lucrative storage business.
"The Camp Cap Company began making hats in a commercial building in the 200 block of Temple
Street in the 1930s. The company adapted the small commercial building to serve as
a manufacturing facility and eventually expanded into the four commercial buildings that occupy the
entire block. The exterior of the buildings appear as four individual commercial buildings while the
interiors have been joined to together to serve the growing company, which continues to make caps
on the site.
" ... The building on the west end of the
200 block of Temple Street is part of the Camp Cap Company and was rebuilt in 1966 ..."
" ... The stores on Temple Street facing the square are excellent
representative examples of the commercial style with their masonry construction, decorative corbeling
along the cornices, and decorative brick arches. ..."
" ... The
Camp Cap Company, which began making hats in a commercial building in the 200 block of Temple
Street in the 1930s, adapted a small commercial building to serve as a manufacturing facility and
eventually expanded into the four commercial buildings that occupy the block.
"The block bounded by Temple Street, North Candler and Church streets, and Loft Lane is a series of
five attached buildings, which house the Camp Cap Company. Arlia Palmer Camp began making
caps for friends and family. Mrs. Camp and her sons decided to make hats and sell them on a larger
scale. Camp Cap has operated on the block since the 1930s and currently occupies the entire city
block. The Villa Rican, one of the town's first newspapers, and the first bank in Villa Rica, the
Merchants and Planters Bank, were located in this block. Merchants and Planters was built in 1907
and failed in 1927. This block included a cotton warehouse, W. G. Johnson General Merchandise,
and Strickland and Son Harness Shop." ~ NRHP Nomination Form