Thomson Commercial Historic District (Additional Documentation)

Downtown Thomson, in east Georgia, preserves a compact business district of about 19 acres that grew up around the Georgia Railroad. Its mostly one- and two-story brick buildings sit shoulder to shoulder along narrow streets, many with historic storefronts and decorative brickwork. Italianate, Neoclassical, Colonial Revival and plain utilitarian commercial styles are all represented. Civic landmarks include an 1860 granite railroad depot, a 1914 city hall and firehouse, a 1932 post office now used as a library, a theater and a 1903 Masonic lodge. South of the tracks stand brick and wood warehouses and a cotton gin that handled cotton, fertilizer, cottonseed and lumber. The district is recognized because it shows how a town developed along a rail line, with streets following the tracks rather than a town square, and because it keeps a concentrated, intact group of early twentieth-century commercial and warehouse buildings. Masonry construction followed an 1888 ordinance passed after a major fire.