Eleventh District A & M School-South Georgia College Historic District

Southwest of downtown Douglas, Georgia, this campus core began in 1907 as the Eleventh District Agricultural and Mechanical School. Atlanta architect Haralson Bleckley designed its three original buildings, Peterson Hall and the flanking Davis and Powell halls, arranged around a semicircular drive and large lawn typical of Georgia's district A & M schools. Later additions include a 1927 dining hall, a relocated log tobacco barn that recalls the school's farm instruction, a 1936 gymnasium and 1939 library built with Public Works Administration help, and postwar housing and academic buildings. The district counts 13 contributing buildings and one contributing structure, the network of roads and walkways. Its importance rests on the school's history. When the district school system faced closure in the 1920s, principal Joseph M. Thrash won legislation in 1927 that turned the school into Georgia's first state-supported junior college. The campus is still used for higher education, and its exteriors remain largely intact despite interior renovations.