BY DEAN POLING
While Valdosta celebrates its sesquicentennial this year, it may be worth remembering that no one was certain how long the city might last 150 years ago.
Valdosta had been created in a scramble. Lowndes County’s government seat had been Troupville until a railroad announced plans to lay track four miles south of the town. Troupville residents pulled up stakes, moved to meet the tracks, and created the new town of Valdosta in 1860. This move came after the changes from Franklinville to Lowndesville to Troupville.
A year later came the Civil War. Because it was relatively far from the battlefields, Valdosta experienced a boom during the war’s uncertain times. After the war, many people left Valdosta for their former Southern homes.
During the final decades of the 1800s, Valdosta continued growing. Yet, given the cataclysmic events leading to the creation of the town and its first years, Valdosta grew cautiously.
Valdosta lacked a sense of permanence. As 1900 ushered in a new century that mood began to change.
By the start of the 20th century, Valdosta was entering its fifth decade as a town and as a hub for Lowndes County and South Georgia commerce. Valdosta appeared to not only be a city that was here to stay, but a town of some consequence in the state and in the South.
As Valdosta entered the 20th century, it replaced wooden structures with the permanence of brick and stone. And Valdosta set its course as a player in the state’s agriculture, commerce and politics of the new century.
The years of the late 1800s and early 1900s marked a crucial period in the development of Valdosta. Several buildings, which are still Downtown Valdosta landmarks, rose during this period of time when downtown was the epicenter of the city’s life.
The early 1900s were boom times for Valdosta when even adversity was viewed as an opportunity for even greater success. King Cotton had been very good to Valdosta. From 1890 to 1916, Valdosta was the world’s largest market for inland sea island cotton.
“... All these crops and agri-industries would contribute significantly to the conversion of Lowndes County from the ‘sickly land’ of the 1820s to ‘Georgia’s Garden of Eden,’ and Valdosta from a hamlet of the 1860s to the ‘Jewel of South Georgia,’” writes Valdosta’s Dr. Louis E. Schmier in his excellent book, “A Ray in the Sunbelt: Valdosta and Lowndes County.”
In 1907, the region’s first tobacco crop was planted on one acre along Ashley Street, beginning the area’s long association with tobacco production.
In 1900, Valdosta-Lowndes County arranged to host the Georgia State Fair, which marked the first such fair in South Georgia, according to the “History of Lowndes County Georgia: 1825-1941.”
Area leaders boldly invited the world to attend. To accompany the fair, Valdosta built a streetcar system, becoming America’s smallest town to operate a trolley. Thousands flocked to Valdosta for the fair as the town earned other nicknames, “Queen City of Southwest Georgia,” “blossom among the pines,” and “the busiest little city of them all,” Schmier notes.
With the fair came electricity, which found its way into numerous homes, businesses, street lamps, etc., more quickly than many of Valdosta’s South Georgia neighbors. Telephones were ringing in homes and businesses in Valdosta of the early 20th century, with the city passing a 1901 ordinance allowing Southern Bell Telephone Company the use of public streets for installing phone poles and electrical conductors.
In 1903, “the first paving of Hill Avenue was begun with the use of vitrified brick with granite curbings,” according to “History of Lowndes County.” In 1904, another project paved sidewalks on Patterson and Ashley streets from Atlantic Coast Line to Valley Street and Central Avenue from Toombs to Ashley. The same year, Postal Telegraph Company installed lines along several city streets.
In 1902, the city abolished the office of city physician and, by 1905, Dr. J.M. Smith and Dr. A.G. Little converted a residence along Valley Street into a downtown hospital, starting a trend of building new hospitals during the next few years.
In 1904, fire destroyed the building of the First United Methodist Church at the corner of Patterson and Valley streets. The fire burned with such intensity that, briefly, the town feared it would turn downtown into an inferno.
“Then for several minutes, the fire seemed to have undisputed sway,” according to a February 1904 edition of The Valdosta Times, “threatening numerous buildings in that section. The sparks and flying embers fell like hail on wooden structures two or three hundred yards away and it looked as though a general conflagration would result.”
The winds soon changed. No other buildings were damaged but the church was destroyed. Undeterred by the loss, the congregation built a new church on the same site, where First United Methodist Church still meets every Sunday. Many area churches began replacing wooden churches for brick churches during this time period.
This same year, Lowndes County began construction on a new courthouse which still greets downtown visitors today. Opening in 1905, the first trial which the courthouse hosted was the same case which led to The Valdosta Times becoming a daily newspaper.
In journalist Bill Boyd’s book on the trial, “Blind Obedience,” under the heading of July 17, 1905, which marked the first day of the trial, he writes, “Although the new Lowndes County courthouse — which had been completed in the spring — was equipped with the latest in electric fans, those contraptions simply moved the humid air around.” Apparently, Valdosta’s penchant for stifling summer temperatures has been around at least 100 years, too.
Schmier lists several other changes in the region as Valdosta’s population grew during this period: the city created a professional fire department, enlarged the police department, a library and opera house were constructed, etc.
By 1906, the region won legislative support for a state-sponsored school in Valdosta, but the General Assembly failed to approve any funds for the new school, according to “History of Lowndes County.” So, it wasn’t until 1913 when doors opened to the South Georgia State Normal College, which became Georgia State Woman’s College, Valdosta State College and Valdosta State University.
Approximately 1898, The Crescent was built as the home of Col. William S. West and his family on North Patterson Street. The Crescent became a symbol of both West and Valdosta’s success. West served as a General Assembly representative and senator from Lowndes County. He rose to speaker of the state senate. In 1914, West became a Georgia senator, sent to Congress by gubernatorial appointment, which marked Valdosta as a city with great influence in the state.
Through these meetings of fate, commerce and influence, a one-time town on the move became a permanent city going places.
