The form of government changed to a mayor-council government with a new city charter on August 24, 1872, and Henry Beusse was elected as the first mayor of Athens. ĭuring Reconstruction, Athens continued to grow. A Confederate memorial that used to stand on Broad Street near the University of Georgia Arch was removed the week of August 10, 2020. In addition, Athens played a small part in the ill-fated "Stoneman Raid" when a skirmish was fought on a site overlooking the Middle Oconee River near what is now the old Macon Highway. Fortifications can still be found along parts of the North Oconee River between College Avenue and Oconee Street. ĭuring the American Civil War, Athens became a significant supply center when the New Orleans armory was relocated to what is now called the Chicopee building. The university essentially created a chain reaction of growth in the community which developed on its doorstep. In the 1830s and 1840s, transportation developments and the growing influence of the University of Georgia made Athens one of the state's most important cities as the Antebellum Period neared the height of its development. ![]() In 1833 a group of Athens businessmen led by James Camak, tired of their wagons getting stuck in the mud, built one of Georgia's first railroads, the Georgia, connecting Athens to Augusta by 1841, and to Marthasville (now Atlanta) by 1845. Athens became known as the " Manchester of the South" after the city in England known for its mills. ![]() The university and town continued to grow with cotton mills fueling the industrial and commercial development. This brick building is now known as Old College.Īthens officially became a town in December 1806 with a government made up of a three-member commission. Completed in 1806 and named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, Franklin College was the first permanent structure of the University of Georgia and the city of Athens. By the time the first class graduated from the university in 1804, Athens consisted of three homes, three stores, and a few other buildings facing Front Street, now known as Broad Street. The town grew as lots adjacent to the college were sold to raise money for the additional construction of the school. The first buildings on the University of Georgia campus were made from logs. City Hall on College Avenue in Downtown Athens, seen across Washington Street Milledge named the surrounding area Athens after the city that was home to the Platonic Academy of Plato and Aristotle in Classical Greece. On July 25, 1801, John Milledge, one of the trustees and later governor of Georgia, bought 633 acres from Daniel Easley and donated it to the university. In 1801, a committee from the university's board of trustees selected a site for the university on a hill above Cedar Shoals, in what was then Jackson County. Georgia's control of the area was established following the Oconee War. On January 27, 1785, the Georgia General Assembly granted a charter by Abraham Baldwin for the University of Georgia as the first state-supported university. In the late 18th century, a trading settlement on the banks of the Oconee River called Cedar Shoals stood where Athens is today. History Historic American Buildings of Athens in 1936 The 2020 book Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture describes Athens as the model of the indie culture of the 1980s. The city is also known as a recording site for such groups as the Atlanta-based Indigo Girls. Major music acts associated with Athens include numerous alternative rock bands such as R.E.M., the B-52's, Widespread Panic, Drive-By Truckers, of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Harvey Milk. ![]() The city is dominated by a pervasive college town culture and music scene centered in downtown Athens, next to the University of Georgia's North Campus. Metropolitan Athens is a component of the larger Atlanta–Athens–Clarke County–Sandy Springs Combined Statistical Area. Athens is the sixth-most populous city in Georgia, and the principal city of the Athens metropolitan area, which had a 2020 population of 215,415, according to the U.S. ![]() Census Bureau's population of the consolidated city-county (all of Clarke County except Winterville and a portion of Bogart) was 127,315. In 1991, after a vote the preceding year, the original City of Athens abandoned its charter to form a unified government with Clarke County, referred to jointly as Athens–Clarke County where it is the county seat. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an R1 research institution, is in Athens and contributed to its initial growth. Athens lies about 70 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. Athens is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S.
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