Bowersville Historic District

Bowersville is a small railroad town in Hart County, Georgia, laid out in 1878 by William F. Bowers to take advantage of the Elberton Air Line Railroad, which reached the community in 1879. The historic district covers about 35 acres along East and West Main Streets, which run parallel to the tracks on either side of a broad, park-like right-of-way. Brick stores with corbeled cornices, sign plates and intact storefronts stand at the center, together with a Masonic Lodge building and two warehouses, one for cotton and one for cotton hulls. Modest wood-frame houses with front porches spread to the north and south, some with Victorian Eclectic detailing. The town grew as a cotton shipping center until the boll weevil and a drought in 1925 ended its growth. Almost nothing was built after that year, so the original plan, landscaping and buildings survive largely intact, with only four non-contributing structures.