Adairsville Historic District

Adairsville's historic core is a railroad town in northwest Georgia, centered on a depot and Public Square. William Watts laid out the business lots in 1846 after selling land to the state for the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and the town was incorporated in 1854. The grid he established still organizes the community. The district covers about 170 acres and includes attached brick storefronts with pressed-metal fronts and cast-iron columns, warehouses and cotton gin sites, early gas stations, the Sans Souci Library of 1916, a Masonic Lodge of 1922, four churches and many wood-framed houses. Styles range from Italianate and Queen Anne to Neoclassical and Craftsman. Prussian-born architect-builder John Schmitz, who lived in town from 1901 to 1917, is credited with much of the building stock. The district was listed for its architecture, commerce, community planning and transportation history, reflecting a small Southern town shaped by the railroad and later by the Dixie Highway.