Rutledge Historic District

Rutledge is a small Georgia Piedmont town in Morgan County, about nine miles west of Madison, that grew up around the Georgia Railroad. The district includes brick commercial buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries with original storefronts and cast iron columns, plus houses ranging from saddlebag and gabled-ell cottages to Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, Neoclassical and Craftsman examples. Community landmarks include the 1877 Moses Chapel AME Church in the Pea Ridge Community, Rutledge Baptist Church, a c. 1920 former city hall, a 1919 depot, a historic cemetery and a cotton field. Rutledge began in 1845 as a service stop with a roundhouse when the railroad line reached the area, and cotton shaped its economy into the 1920s. The Dixie Highway later added to its importance, with the Rutledge-to-Madison section among the first paved rural roads in Georgia. The period of significance runs from 1845 to 1953.