Norcross Historic District

Norcross is a small Georgia community that grew up around a railroad. Its historic district follows Peachtree Road and the former Richmond and Danville Railroad tracks, which both run along a low ridge marking the eastern continental divide. The district takes in the town's core as it developed from its founding in 1870 into the early twentieth century. At its center is a two-block commercial area of one- and two-story brick buildings, a Neoclassical bank, a wood-framed depot and a city park with stone gates erected in 1923. Residential streets extend northeast and southwest, with Queen Anne, Victorian Eclectic and Neoclassical houses, Craftsman bungalows, small cottages and a few farmhouses. The 1907 Edward Buchanan house is built of granite blocks. The district was listed because it shows how a railroad shaped the founding and growth of a small Georgia town, and because its architecture, park, athletic field, street trees and rail corridor preserve that character amid surrounding suburban development.