Montezuma Historic District

Montezuma Historic District covers the core of a railroad town in central southwest Georgia, stretching roughly 1.5 miles along Dooly Street. Two rail lines cross the district, and downtown grew up beside them. The commercial area has one- and two-story brick buildings with corbeled cornices, along with a 1921 Neoclassical bank, a 1920 Art Deco building and a cotton warehouse. Two industrial buildings from the Montezuma Manufacturing Company remain: a cottonseed oil mill (1901) and a knitting mill (1903). Community landmarks include the 1890 depot, a 1906 Carnegie library, a 1939 post office, and a 1911 Confederate monument. Houses range from the late 19th century to the early 1950s in Queen Anne, Craftsman, Colonial Revival and other styles. Duncan's Bottom, the historic African-American neighborhood west of North Dooly Street, retains rare intact single-pen houses, and Beaver Street was its business and social center. Flooding has long affected the town, and a levee was built along Beaver Creek in 1954.