Canton Commercial Historic District

Downtown Canton's historic commercial core is preserved in an L-shaped district of one and one-half blocks, centered on Main Street and East Marietta Street. Its one- to three-story brick buildings share party walls and date from the 1890s to the 1930s. Styles include simple Victorian Eclectic, Commercial, Beaux Arts and Art Moderne, with a marble-clad Bank of Canton from 1892 and the stucco-clad Canton Theatre, built in 1913 and remodeled around 1940, standing out. A Masonic Lodge with an intact interior and a 1920s commercial and residential building with pent roofs are also noted. The area matters for its architecture and for commerce. Canton was founded in the early nineteenth century during the north Georgia gold rush, was nearly destroyed in the Civil War, and then rebuilt. The 1879 railroad, the Georgia Marble Finishing Works, the Canton Cotton Mills and the first bank drove growth from the 1890s until about 1910. The district shows what the whole downtown looked like decades ago.