What to See in Dalton - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in Dalton, Georgia. The Robert T. Webb Sculpture Garden is a five-acre admission-free, open-air museum and sculpture park located in Dalton, Georgia, near Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is operated by the Creative Arts Guild, the state's oldest multi-disciplinary, community arts organization. The sculpture garden is the first permanent installation of its kind in the state of Georgia The garden features more than 50 outdoor sculptures in three sections of the Guild's property—the Ken and Myra White Magnolia Crescent, the Eli Rosen Garden and the Founders Garden—that provide an organic setting for the works, including mature trees, shrubs and flowers. The garden includes works by prominent artists such as Isamu Noguchi, Scott Burton, James Rosati, Betty Gold, Victor Salmones, Guy Dill, Chana Orloff, Felipe Castaneda and Ken Macklin. The Creative Arts Guild also maintains an indoor art gallery, which hosts rotating exhibits by local, regional and national artists. The sculpture garden welcomes approximately 10,000 visitors each year and is an educational resource for regional schools.^[1]

Non-profit organization in Varnell, Georgia. Prater's Mill was built in the mid-19th century. It is located in Varnell, Georgia. Serving the city of Dalton as a working mill, it is now used as the center piece of a country fair that showcases cultural history of Southern Appalachia. The country fair consists of mountain music, Southern foods, and living history exhibits and the handmade crafts and original art of 185 talented artists and artisans. Crafts include blacksmithing, spinning, quilting, rug hooking, woodcarving, and hand tufting.

At the fair, visitors take self-guided tours viewing the gristmill, the country store, Shugart Cotton Gin, and Westbrook Barn that has farm animals. Across from the mill, in 1898, the Prater's store was built. It serves Southern meals that have pinto beans, turnip greens and dried apple stack cake. Elsewhere throughout the festival are other specialties such as pit-cooked barbecue, apple cider, fried apple pies and churned ice cream. While at the fair, visitors enjoy canoeing on the Coahulla Creek, a walk down the nature trail and pony rides for children. Educational exhibits include a Civil War encampment, working antique engines and "Peacock Alley", a clothesline display of hand-tufted bedspreads. Ongoing entertainment consists of on stage clogging, country bands, and gospel singers.

The Prater's Mill Country Fair is sponsored by the Prater's Mill Foundation, a non-profit organization of volunteers dedicated to historic preservation and education. Thirty-nine civic clubs, churches and schools also participate in the community event. The hours are 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $7.00, children 12 and under are free. Visitors are urged to dress casually and wear comfortable shoes. Parking is free.^[3]

The Thomas A. Berry House is a historic residence in Dalton, Georgia. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 5, 1984. It is located at 506 Hawthorne Street.

The house was built for Thomas A. Berry (1852-1922) and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Bass (1861-1945), as a wedding gift by her father in 1882.

The home's architectural style is considered Late Victorian. It was deemed significant as "a home built in the Victorian Eclectic style that retains its original setting, appearance, similar landscaping, and most significant exterior and interior features....one of a handful of Victorian-era homes that remain in an area that was an affluent section of Dalton during that period." Indicative features of the architectural style include: the house's wraparound porch, decorative brackets on the eaves and the porch, the bay window, stained glass, and interior mantels.^[5]

Historical place in Dalton, Georgia. Dalton Commercial Historic District is a historic district in Dalton, Georgia that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Its boundaries were expanded in 2006.

It includes the Western and Atlantic Depot, which is separately listed on the NRHP, and course of railway that was site of the Great Locomotive Chase of 1862. The 1852-built railroad depot, at the end of King Street, is Italianate in style and is the oldest building in the district. A 1938-built movie theater is the newest of the contributing resources.

Per NRIS, the original listing included 20 acres (8.1 ha) with 78 contributing buildings and one other contributing structure and one contributing object.

The district covers a central business district arranged on a gridiron street plan that is not unlike that of other small Georgia cities. It includes historic government buildings, commercial buildings, and transportation-related facilities.

Its three government buildings are the Georgian Revival-styled old Federal Post Office and city hall, and the county fire station, "which represent the presence of federal and local government in Dalton during the early 20th century. City hall, built in 1937, is one of the few major buildings built in Dalton During the 1930s and, as such, reflects the economic stimulation that the WPA and other federal programs were designed to provide during the Depression. These buildings represent three different levels of government and their day-to-day operations in the community."

It includes the Wink Theater, a 1938 movie theater featuring Art Moderne styling.

It also captures industry that made Dalton the "'Tufted Bedspread Capital of the World' in the 1930s and 1940s. This was the beginning of the tufted carpet industry for Dalton which today has developed into a worldwide carpet industry."

Or per the increase document, the original listing included 85 contributing buildings, 40 non-contributing buildings, and one contributing object. The object was the 15 feet (4.6 m) bronze statue of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston emplaced on Crawford Street in 1912.

Per NRIS, the increase included 5 acres (2.0 ha) with 33 contributing buildings. And it included Italianate and Colonial Revival architecture.

Or per the increase document, the increase added 27 contributing buildings, and subtracted 19 non-contributing ones.^[6]