{"nrhp_refnum":"04001184","name":"Swainsboro Light and Water Plant","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Bounded by East Moring and South Coleman Sts. and the Norfolk Southern Railway","address_restricted":false,"city":"Swainsboro","county":"Emanuel County","state":"GA","lat":32.59658293000007,"lon":-82.33141431999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-10-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A municipal utilities complex in Swainsboro, Emanuel County, Georgia, built in 1921-1922 as a combined electric power plant and water works. It includes a brick power plant, well house, reservoir, elevated water tank, pump house and chlorine storage tank.","why_significant":"The complex is argued to be an excellent example of an early 20th-century municipal utilities complex in rural Georgia (engineering). It also represents a small-town government's effort, backed by bond votes and citizen support, to supply electricity and water to residents (politics/government).","narrative":"Two blocks east of the courthouse square in Swainsboro, this utilities complex once supplied the town with both electricity and water. Completed in 1921-1922 beside the railroads, it centers on a one-story brick power plant with arched openings and a corbelled cornice. Nearby are a deep well and well house, a 200,000-gallon concrete reservoir, a 110-foot elevated steel water tank, a brick pump house and a chlorine storage tank. Coal-fired boilers made steam for dynamos that powered the pumps and served city residents. Voters approved bonds in 1919 and 1920 to pay for the project, and the Atlanta firm J.B. McCrary Engineering was chosen to build it. The complex was listed for its engineering value as a largely intact rural Georgia utility system and for what it shows about local government action to bring modern services to residents. Its period of significance runs from 1921 to 1954. The property is now vacant, and the city plans a water and power museum.","period_of_significance":"1921-1954","architect_builder":"J.B. McCrary Engineering Company","architectural_style":"Other: early 20th-century industrial building","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Listed current function is vacant/not in use; the power equipment no longer remains, while the pumping equipment is intact. The city plans to rehabilitate it as a water and power museum.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:42.813114-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/04001184.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001184/eed2927f3c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001184/eed2927f3c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Jud McCranie","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Light_and_Water_Plant,_Swainsboro,_GA,_US.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jud McCranie</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Light_and_Water_Plant,_Swainsboro,_GA,_US.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207957","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swainsboro_Light_and_Water_Plant","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30622165"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/emanuel-county/swainsboro-light-and-water-plant-04001184/"}