Sylvester Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Downtown Sylvester, the Worth County seat in southwest Georgia, grew up around the railroad and a town plan laid out on a grid in 1893. This boundary increase extends the existing commercial district one block east and adds 14 buildings. It also reclassifies five buildings as contributing after later facades and metal coverings were removed. The area holds one- to three-story brick commercial buildings with storefront windows, corbeled cornices and flat or parapet roofs. Notable landmarks include the Woolard Hotel, four attached two-story brick buildings from 1900 to 1910 with shops below and hotel rooms above. The post office combines Colonial Revival details with an International-style form and holds a cantaloupe-industry mural. A brick gas station in the house-with-canopy style is also included. The district is significant for commerce, community planning and architecture, with a period of significance of 1893 to 1951, and it shows how a small Georgia county seat developed.