North Villa Rica Commercial Historic District

The North Villa Rica Commercial Historic District in Villa Rica, Georgia, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 2002. The original application included eighteen buildings spread out over several blocks.[1] The buildings were built in the early commercial style and date from the early to mid-20th century.[2] This area houses the City of Villa Rica Police Department along with several antique stores, restaurants, and other commercial businesses. The boundary is basically North Avenue, East Gordon St, West Church St, and the Southern Railroad line.

North Villa Rica Commercial Historic District
A picture of the businesses on Temple Street in the Historic District.
LocationVilla Rica, Georgia
Builtearliest ca. 1907-1955
Architectural styleEarly commercial style
NRHP reference No.02001635
Added to NRHPDecember 31, 2002

The district lost two significant buildings contributing to the National Register on the east in July 2009. The city demolished the old Villa Rica Electric & Light and E.L. Esterwood mill (later known as Golden City Hosiery) for greenspace, amphitheater and future new city hall.

[3] The Villa Rica Electric & Light made ice and also was the local bottler for Coca-Cola from 1903–1923 in the hometown of Asa Candler.[4]

The district is also referred to as Hixtown, the original name of Villa Rica. However, this can cause confusion since this is not where Hixtown was originally located. Hixtown was first settled about a mile and a half up Georgia State Route 61 near where Tanner Medical Center Villa Rica currently sits.[5] When the railroad came through in 1882, many of the buildings from Hixtown were moved to what is now the North Villa Rica Commercial Historic District and thus the reference to Hixtown. Local lore states the last of these moved buildings was demolished for a parking lot in the 1990s beside the Lofts.[6]

References
  1. National Register Nomination
  2. Blevins, Ernest Everett, MFA, "Do You Know Your Villa Rica? More to Downtown than Meets the Eye" The Villa Rican, Vol. 72, No. 37 (14 September 2006), 9.
  3. personal knowledge of Blevins who documented the demolition.
  4. Blevins, Ernest Everett, MFA,"The Early Days In Villa Rica: Cola Cola's Bottles and Bottlers" The Times-Georgian, Vol. 136, No. 29 (13 December 2007), 10. Also published in The Villa Rican, Atlanta and national Coca-Cola Collectors magazine (Summer 2008).
  5. Mary Talley Anderson (1976), The History of Villa Rica (City of Gold), Privately Published.
  6. Yet unsubstantiated, but has floated around for at least 8 years as the story.


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