Linton Historic District

Linton is a small Hancock County, Georgia village laid out along a single one-mile main street lined with cedars and oaks. Founded in 1858 around the Washington Institute, a private Baptist-backed school, it was planned as a town free of the distractions of railroads and liquor. Land was sold to the school in 1857 by Dr. John Stone, and the town took its name from Linton Stephens. Families built houses large enough for boarding students, and these range from raised cottages to Greek Revival, Italianate and Victorian designs, alongside a Methodist church built in 1889-1890 and a store from the 1850s. Twelve long lots were drawn in the original plat. The school burned in 1894, and the town has changed little since. Roughly 365 acres were nominated, including old cemeteries and much of the original plat. The district was recognized for its education history and its well-preserved nineteenth-century architecture.