Augusta, Georgia - United States of America

North America » United States » Georgia
October 10th 2005

Published: December 11th 2006

Edit Blog Post

airwolf09

Augusta

Augusta, Georgia - United States of America

Oct 10, 2005

*City official name :Augusta
*Founded date :
*Location :Georgia State
*Elavation :? ft (? m)
*Area :Approximately ? square miles (? km²).
*Facts :Augusta is a city located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 195,182. In 1996, the governments of the City of Augusta and Richmond County combined to form a single governing body known as Augusta-Richmond County. The consolidated city-county is today simply known as "Augusta, Georgia" and not by the consolidated name. The area that comprises the city limits of Augusta (identified during the 2000 census as "the Augusta-Richmond County balance") includes almost all of Richmond County, except for the towns of Hephzibah and Blythe, which maintain governments separate from that of Augusta.

Augusta is located on the Georgia/South Carolina border, about 150 miles east of Atlanta. It is the second largest city and second largest metropolitan area in the state. Augusta is the birthplace of the Southern Baptist denomination, and the location of Springfield Baptist Church, the oldest autonomous African-American Baptist church in the nation. The region’s three largest employers include the Savannah River Site (a Department of Energy nuclear facility),

Augusta

Augusta, Georgia - United States of America

the U.S. Army Signal Center, and Fort Gordon, and the Medical College of Georgia. The city’s famous golf course, the Augusta National Golf Club, hosts the first major golf tournament of each year, The Masters.

The city was originally named in honor of Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and was the second state capital of Georgia from 1785 until 1795 (alternating for a period with Savannah, the first).

Augusta's official nickname is The Garden City. It is also known as Masters City, since it plays host to the Masters golf tournament. The city recently adopted the motto, "We Feel Good", in recognition of native son and soul music legend James Brown.

Founding
The location of Augusta was first used by Native Americans as a place to cross the Savannah River, because of Augusta's location on the fall line.

In 1735, two years after James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, he sent a detachment of troops on a journey up the Savannah River. He gave them an order to build at the head of the navigable part of the river. The job fell into the hands of Nobel Jones, who created the settlement to provide a first line of defense against

Augusta

Augusta, Georgia - United States of America

the Spanish and the French. Oglethorpe then named the town Augusta, in honor of Princess Augusta, wife of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

The town was laid out on the flat slopes of the Savannah River, just east of the sand hills that would come to be known as "Summerville". The townspeople got along peacefully most of the time with the surrounding tribes of Creek and Cherokee Indians.

In 1739, construction began on a road to connect Augusta to Savannah. This made it possible for people to reach Augusta by horse, rather than by boat, and more people began to migrate inland to Augusta. Later, in 1750, Augusta's first church, St. Paul's, was built near Fort Augusta. It became the leader of the local parish.

Under Georgia's new constitution, a new political structure was laid out in 1777, and Augusta's parish government would be replaced by a new county government, Richmond County, which was named after the Duke of Richmond.

During the American Revolution, Savannah fell to the British. This left Augusta as the new state capital and a new prime target of the British. By January 31, 1779, Augusta was captured by Lt. Col. [[Archibald Campbell.

Augusta

Augusta, Georgia - United States of America

But Campbell soon withdrew, as American troops were gathering on the opposite shore of the Savannah River. Augusta again became the state capital, but not for long. Augusta fell into British hands once more before the end of the war.

From then until the American Civil War, with the establishment of the Augusta Canal, Augusta became a leader in the production of textiles, gunpowder, and paper. The Georgia Railroad was built by local contractors Fannin, Grant & Co in 1845 giving Augusta a rail link to Atlanta, which connected to the Tennessee River at Chattanooga, Tennessee, thus providing access to the Mississippi River. The cost-savings of this link from the middle of the country to the Atlantic Ocean via the Savannah River increased trade considerably. Augusta had a population of 12,493 by 1860, being one of 102 U.S. cities at the time to have a population of over 10,000, and making it the second largest city in Georgia.

Originally, Augustans welcomed the idea of the Civil War. The new Confederate Powderworks were the only permanent structures constructed and completed by the Confederacy. Over 2000 Augustans went away to fight in the war, but war did not set into

Augusta

Augusta, Georgia - United States of America

the minds of Augustans until the summer of 1863. It was in that year that thousands of refugees from areas threatened by invasion came crowding into Augusta, leading to shortages in housing and provisions. Next came the threatening nearness of General Sherman's advancing army, causing panic in the streets of the once-quiet town. However, the city was never burned to the ground.

In 1828, the Georgia General Assembly granted a formal charter for the Medical Academy of Georgia, and the school began training physicians in two borrowed rooms of the City Hospital. By 1873, an affiliation was made with the University of Georgia, and the school became the Medical Department of the University. The school would become the Medical College of Georgia in 1956. In 1914, University Hospital was founded near the Medical College, forming the anchor of a heavily developed medical sector in the city.

Unlike most Southern cities, Postbellum life for Augusta was very prosperous. By the beginning of the 20th century, Augusta had become one of the largest inland cotton markets in the world. A new military cantonment, named Camp Hancock, opened nearby during World War I.

Prior to World War II, the U.S.

Augusta

Augusta, Georgia - United States of America

Army constructed a new fort near Richmond County, Camp Gordon, which was finished a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Many new soldiers were brought to this camp to train to go off to war. While they were there, though, the townspeople treated them nicely, causing many of them to come back to Augusta at the end of the war. Within the few months after WWII, many of the GIs at Camp Gordon had been sent back home, and the importance of the army in the community seemed to almost come to an end.

In 1948, new life came to the city when the U.S. Army moved the Signal Training Center and Military Police School to Camp Gordon. Later, in November 1948, the Clarks Hill Reservoir was created by a newly constructed dam, which provided the city with a supply of hydroelectric power. In 1950, plans were announced to build the Savannah River Plant nearby, which would boost the city's population about 50,000. Augusta moved into the second half of the twentieth century on the threshold of becoming an urban industrial center in the South.

The American Civil Rights Movement touched Augusta as it did the

Augusta

Augusta, Georgia - United States of America

rest of the United States. In 1961, soul musician Ray Charles cancelled a scheduled performance at the Bell Auditorium when he learned that the black attendees would be segregated from the whites and forced to sit in the balcony. A few days after the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings in May 1970, six African-American students were killed by police for civil rights demonstrations.,

Beginning in the late 1970s, businesses started leaving downtown Augusta for suburban shopping malls. That started a trend of urban abandonment and decay. To counter this trend, city politicians and business leaders promoted revitalizing Augusta's hidden riverfront (obscured by a levee) into a beautiful Riverwalk with parks, an amphitheater, hotels, museums, and art galleries. The first segment of The Riverwalk was opened in the late 1980s and later expanded in the early 1990s. However, the renaissance of the riverfront did not appear to be spilling over into Augusta's main street, Broad Street, as more businesses were leaving and more storefronts boarded up.

In 1995, members of the art community and downtown boosters started a monthly event called First Friday. It was a night festival whose aim was to bring crowds back to downtown.

Augusta

Augusta, Georgia - United States of America

It featured local bands, street performers, and art galleries opened late. Since 1995, more businesses have started to return to dowtown, including many new restaurants and bars. A block of upper Broad Street has been named Artists Row and is home to several locally owned art galleries. First Friday was cancelled in the Fall of 2006. More businesses have closed along Broad Street, such as Mocha Delites.

Additional photos below

Photos: 16, Displayed: 16