South Main Street Historic District

Five attached brick storefronts on the west side of South Main Street in downtown Statesboro make up this small commercial district. Built between 1900 and 1915, most are two stories tall and share uniform setbacks with no gaps between them. Detailing is modest: round or segmental arched windows, corbeled or denticulated brickwork, and pressed-metal cornices. Local contractors Walter Aldred Jr., L. R. Blackburn and A. J. Franklin are credited with the construction. The row grew up near the courthouse and cotton warehouses, in the first commercial section of town after the railroad arrived in 1889. Businesses here have included grocery, furniture, dry goods and clothing stores, and an Odd Fellows hall met upstairs by 1908. The Statesboro Telephone Company building received a Moderne facade in 1938, one of only two in the city. The district was recognized for its role in local commerce and as the best-preserved group of early storefronts on this street.