What to See in Hartwell - Top Sights and Attractions

The Hartwell Commercial Historic District is a 14 acres historic district in Hartwell, Georgia which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It is 14 acres in size and is roughly bounded by Franklin St. Forest Ave. Railroad St. and Jackson and Carolina Sts. It included 48 contributing buildings and one contributing structure.

It was deemed architecturally significant for its "collection of historic commercial buildings which define the historic character of Hartwell's town center. The buildings document the types, styles, building materials, and construction techniques prevalent in the commercial areas of small northeast Georgia towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Types represented include stores (many with second-floor office space), banks, warehouses, and a depot. Their close concentration along the streets with consistent setbacks and party walls is typical of small Georgia towns of the period. The majority are simple late-Victorian-style buildings with detailing consisting of brick corbeling, round- and segmental-arched window openings, and parapet roofs."^[1]

The Benson Street-Forest Avenue Residential Historic District is a historic district in Hartwell, Georgia which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

It is located roughly along Benson St. from Forest Ave. to Adams St. and along Forest Ave. from Railroad St. to Garrison Rd. It includes Bungalow/craftsman, Late Victorian, and Victorian Eclectic architecture. It included 46 contributing buildings on about 75 acres (30 ha).

Its 1985 NRHP nomination asserts "The district is significant as one of three intact historic residential areas in Hartwell and one which contains many of its oldest and grandest houses. It documents the building materials, types, styles, and construction technologies typically found in small northeast Georgia towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The district contains one of Hartwell's few extant antebellum houses. It provides excellent examples of a variety of Victorian Eclectic and Bungalow/Craftsman residences. Among the Victorian Eclectic houses are a number with considerable Queen Anne detailing including balconies, turrets, bay windows, tall chimneys, and decorative shinglework. Other smaller Victorian Eclectic-style houses provide examples of modestly detailed cottages with a minimum of porch and gable-end trim. A number of the Craftsman-style dwellings and some earlier houses "updated" with Craftsman-style porches were constructed by the Temple family, Hartwell's extremely important family of builders, building-supply dealers and architects whose businessshaped the community's built environment."

It was also deemed significant in social history and in history of community planning and development.

Notable Victorian "mansions" in the district include:

• Skelton House, with asymmetrical massing and a Classical Revival two-story entrance portico, home of judge Carey Skelton, who was Georgia's Solicitor General and was Judge of the Fourth Circuit;
• McCurry House, with one-story wraparound porch, and Queen Anne-style massing, turrets, and trim;
• Linder House, similar to McCurry House.

The Witham Cotton Mills Village Historic District is a 18 acres historic district in Hartwell, Georgia. The district included 47 contributing buildings along Liberty Circle, Jackson, and Webb Streets in Hartwell, including Bungalow/craftsman, Late Victorian, and vernacular Victorian architecture.

It includes multiple "two-family, wood-framed, weatherboarded housing units with their simple shed-roofed porches and double entrances" which are "typical of much of Georgia's mill housing. The one-story and two-story variations on what is basically the same housing unit are frequently found, as in the district, in the same mill village in order to provide a variety of living spaces for different size families. The single-family brick bungalows in the district, built in the early 20th century for supervisors and their families, serve to document the different living accommodations frequently provided within a mill village for mill management. The few small Victorian houses absorbed into the mill village as it was constructed contrast with the unrelenting sameness of the housing built by the mill for its workers. Although not much larger than some of the mill housing units, these small cottages have modest individual touches, an L-shaped plan with a bay window in one, a gable-end sunburst design in another."^[5]

The Roscoe Conklin Linder House in Hartwell, Georgia is a Craftsman bungalow which was built in 1917. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

It is a one-and-a-half-story brick veneer house, built to a design by Leila Ross Wilburn.

Roscoe Conklin Linder served as mayor of Hartwell in two terms.

The NRHP nomination explains its significance as:

The Linder House is architecturally significant as a good intact example of a Bungalow with Craftsman design features. Its low massing, broad gable roof, wide front and side porch with squat columns, fenestration patterns, and exposed rafter and roof brackers are all characteristics of the Craftsman style as it was interpreted locally in Hartwell. Its architectural significance is enhanced from associations with the builder, John William Temple, and the architect, Leila Ross Wilburn, who provided a pattern book design. John William Temple belonged to the Temple family of builders, designers, and contractors who built or remodeled many homes and buildings in Hartwell during the early 20th century. Leila Ross Wilburn was Georgia's first woman architect who specialized in pattern book designs for homes.^[6]