Milledgeville Historic District

Milledgeville's historic district covers essentially the area laid out in 1803 as the planned capital of Georgia, on a bluff at the head of navigation of the Oconee River. The state legislature designated the city the capital in 1804, and it held that role until 1868. The grid of 100-foot streets and four Savannah-style squares, set aside for a state house, a governor's residence, a penitentiary and a cemetery, still survives. Buildings include the reconstructed Gothic Revival State House, now part of Georgia Military College, and the 1838 Classical Revival Governor's Mansion. Atkinson Hall stands on the former Penitentiary Square, now a college campus. Federal-period houses such as the Cedars and the Ferguson House remain little altered, and Victorian structures such as the Old Opera House add variety. Sherman occupied the city in 1864 without destroying it. The listing was sought to protect the plan and its buildings from growing development pressure.