Byron Historic District

Byron, in Middle Georgia about fifteen miles south of Macon, grew up around the crossing of the Southwestern Railroad and the Old Fort Valley Road, now Main Street. The historic district preserves that core: a commercial area at the crossing, houses lining the tracks, and surrounding residential streets. Its 58 contributing resources include a c.1900 combination freight and passenger depot, brick and cast-concrete commercial buildings, railside warehouses, a small brick jail, the c.1880 Old Methodist Church and a historic water tank. Houses range from two Georgian cottages of about 1867 and 1870 to Queen Anne, Neoclassical Revival and Craftsman examples. The district matters for two reasons. Its buildings show the styles and types common in small Georgia towns from the 1860s to the 1940s. It also records how the railroad shaped the town, carrying first cotton and then peaches to distant markets. The period of significance runs from 1867 to 1942.