Green Street-Brenau Historic District

Green Street-Brenau Historic District covers roughly 175 acres on a flat plateau north of downtown Gainesville, Georgia. It combines three residential areas, City Park, the 1911 Candler Street School and the historic buildings of Brenau College. Houses date from the 1880s to the 1930s and are mostly wood-framed, one-and-a-half to two stories, in Victorian, Neoclassical, Georgian, Colonial, Tudor Revival and Craftsman styles. Local carpenter-builders, rather than large developers or architects, shaped most of them. The district grew after a railroad arrived in 1871 and brought rapid growth, as middle- and upper-class families moved away from the commercial and industrial center. The city bought land for a park in 1886, an early commitment to public recreation. Brenau, founded in 1877, was an important institution for the higher education of women in Georgia, and Candler Street School is the city's earliest surviving public school. Residents included businessmen, professionals, educators and a Georgia governor.