{"nrhp_refnum":"84000979","name":"Albany District Pecan Growers' Exchange","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"211-213 Roosevelt Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Albany","county":"Dougherty County","state":"GA","lat":31.58172479800004,"lon":-84.15148296099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-05-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of three brick buildings at 211-213 Roosevelt Avenue in Albany, Dougherty County, Georgia, north of downtown: a two-story headquarters built in 1922, a ca. 1902 warehouse, and a 1932 warehouse.","why_significant":"The complex housed a major agricultural cooperative that marketed the Albany area's pecan crop. It is tied to the early-twentieth-century growth of pecan culture in Georgia. The Exchange became one of the largest, best-equipped paper-shell pecan handling and bleaching plants in the country, and the buildings are among the most important surviving properties linked to pecan growing and selling in the state.","narrative":"Three connected brick buildings at the corner of Roosevelt and Washington Streets in Albany, Georgia, once served as the base of a pecan-marketing cooperative. The oldest is a ca. 1902 warehouse that the Albany District Pecan Growers' Exchange bought in 1922 for grading and shipping. That year it also built a two-story headquarters, designed by architect M.J. Reidy and built by the A.E. Itner Company, with a cold-storage basement and upper floors for shelling and bleaching nuts. A second warehouse followed in 1932. Pecan farming reached southwest Georgia in the 1880s, and after the boll weevil cut cotton production, pecans became the area's leading cash crop. The Exchange, chartered in 1913, grew into one of the country's largest paper-shell pecan handling and bleaching plants. Disease in the trees during the 1940s reduced production and the cooperative failed. The buildings were recognized for their links to agriculture and commerce and as important surviving pecan-industry properties in Albany and Georgia.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Architect for 1922 building: M.J. Reidy, Albany; Contractor for 1922 building: A.E. Itner Company, Albany","architectural_style":"Late-Victorian style for the ca. 1902 warehouse; the 1922 headquarters has a streamlined brick commercial design","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Listed as unoccupied and vacant, in fair condition, on the original site.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.313233-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/84000979.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207844","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/dougherty-county/albany-district-pecan-growers-exchange-84000979/"}