Tifton Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)

This amendment enlarges Tifton's downtown commercial historic district southward by four blocks along South Main Street, Commerce Way, and nearby cross streets. The added area holds mostly modest one- and two-story brick storefronts built between the 1890s and 1942, along with the Masonic Lodge, the Tifton Buggy Works, an auto dealership, former gas stations, a tobacco warehouse, and the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Depot. Architectural influences range from Late Victorian to Stripped Classical, Art Deco, Art Moderne, and Spanish Mission. The amendment also extends the period of significance to 1942 to cover the building boom of the late 1930s, when tobacco and agriculture revived the local economy after the 1916 sawmill closing. The area is significant for architecture, community planning, commerce, and transportation. It also records a former African-American commercial section on East Fifth Street that shifted south as the city expanded. The Bowen Building in the original area was reclassified as contributing.