Potts Brothers Store
Why it's listed
Built about 1894, this one-story fieldstone building in Gabbettville, a tiny rural community near LaGrange, served as a country store for the surrounding farms and plantations. Fanning and Frank Potts located it here because a railroad pass track offered a convenient place to unload merchandise. The store sold supplies for home, farm and plantation, along with horses and mules, and housed a post office for some years. The brothers also ran two cotton gins, a flour mill and a grist mill nearby. The rectangular building has a stepped front gable, a wide boxed roof overhang and a full-width porch. Its fieldstone, apparently quarried on a family plantation near the Chattahoochee River, is unusual, since rural stores were usually built of wood. About 1907 the building passed to William Metz, whose family held it into the 1970s. It later became offices. Surviving ledger books from the 1890s add to its commercial interest.
Significance in brief: The store is argued to be a good example of a late-nineteenth century all-purpose country store in rural Georgia and one of the few substantial buildings left in Gabbettville. Its fieldstone construction is unusual for rural commercial buildings in the state, which were typically wood. It is also significant for commerce, having served area farms and plantations around the turn of the century.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 83000246, listed March 31, 1983. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | Gabbettville Rd, La Grange |
|---|---|
| County | Troup County |
| Listed | March 31, 1983 |
| Reference number | 83000246 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | 1800-1899 and 1900- (specific date ca. 1894) |
| Architect / builder | "Mr. Hart," builder |
| Criteria |
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| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Occupied; the interior was subdivided into offices in the 1970s, and the building has been used as a tenant house and for storage in the past. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 32.94453, -85.13276 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For an income-producing building, listing (individually or as a contributing building in a district) is the gateway to the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit on qualified rehabilitation costs, often stackable with state credits. Work claiming the credit must follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and be approved in advance.
Listing does not restrict a private owner acting without federal money or permits; where federal funding or licensing is involved, Section 106 review applies.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 83000246.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikidata Q134464413
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.