Eatonton Historic District

Eatonton, the seat of Putnam County, Georgia, is protected here as a district of about 275 acres centered on the county courthouse. It holds over sixty nineteenth-century houses and commercial buildings. The courthouse of 1905-1906 is the third on its block and was built by W. J. Beeland of Macon. North of it, Madison and Jefferson Avenues are lined with Greek Revival mansions such as the Slade-Dunn, Reid-Green and Adams-Hume houses, alongside Victorian and Queen Anne homes. The business district dates from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and some lower floors have been given later facades. The district matters for its largely intact nineteenth-century character and its classical and Victorian architecture. The settlement grew from cotton wealth after the 1805 land lottery. The town was the birthplace of writer Joel Chandler Harris. It was also home to Dr. Benjamin W. Hunt, who introduced Jersey cattle to Georgia and studied figs and grapes at Panola Farm.