Sparta Historic District

Sparta, the Hancock County seat in central Georgia, was founded in the late 1700s and still reads largely as a 19th century town. This district of about 50 acres centers on the 1881 Victorian courthouse, designed by Parkins and Bruce of Atlanta, and spreads along Broad, Rabun, Jones and Elm Streets. It includes Clinch Terrace, a Greek Revival mansion of 1825, the 1819 Terrell-Stone House, the Rossiter-Little House built around a 1797 log cabin, and the 1840 Lafayette Hotel. Sparta was designated county seat in 1797 and incorporated in 1805. It was known for its schools, a girls' school founded in 1832, a planters' club that conducted experimental planting, an early farm newspaper and Georgia's first agricultural fair in 1841. Although most of those institutions have disappeared, the surviving Greek Revival and Victorian buildings preserve the town's progressive character and were the basis for the listing.