{"nrhp_refnum":"86002009","name":"Franklin Light and Power Company Steam Generating Station","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Leard St. at RR track","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hartwell","county":"Hart County","state":"GA","lat":34.355566071000055,"lon":-82.94588132699994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, flat-roofed brick steam generating station on Leard Street at the railroad tracks in Hartwell, Hart County, Georgia, built in the early 1900s by J. B. McCrary for the Franklin Light and Power Company.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is significant in architecture and engineering as the sole surviving structure tied to the introduction of electrical power to Hartwell. It supplied electricity to Hartwell and the nearby towns of Canon, Lavonia, Royston and Bowersville. It is also presented as a good representative example of the small, utilitarian design of such plants, few of which survive in Georgia.","narrative":"Built in the early 1900s by J. B. McCrary, this brick steam generating station in Hartwell, Georgia, once powered the town and its neighbors. It served the Franklin Light and Power Company and sent electricity to Hartwell, Canon, Lavonia, Bowersville and Royston. The system was sold to the Georgia Power Company in 1916. The building is a plain one-story rectangle with a flat roof, segmentally arched windows with brick voussoirs, simple pilasters dividing the main facade into three bays, and a corbeled brick cornice. Inside is a single open space with a pit in the concrete floor where the generator once sat. The original generator is gone, the windows are boarded over, and the central entrance has been partly filled with concrete block. It is now used for storage. It was listed as the only surviving structure linked to the arrival of electric lighting, appliances, industrial power and street lights in Hartwell, and as a representative small utilitarian power plant.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Franklin Light and Power Company","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Used for storage of outdated equipment; windows are boarded over and no original generating equipment remains.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:42.736662-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/86002009.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93206240","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/hart-county/franklin-light-and-power-company-steam-generating-station-86002009/"}