History
Douglas was established in 1858 on 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land donated by J.S. Pearson at the confluence of Twenty Mile Creek and Seventeen Mile Creek. It was named for Senator Stephen A. Douglas, a renowned stump speaker and Congressman who was the presidential challenger to Abraham Lincoln in the Election of 1860. Douglas was chartered as a town in 1895 and as a city in 1897. In 1895, the railroad came to Douglas and the community began to boom. In 1909, the Georgia and Florida Railway located its offices in Douglas. The Eleventh District Agricultural & Mechanical School was established in Douglas in 1906. In 1927, South Georgia College became Georgia's first state supported junior college. During the 1920s and 1930s, Douglas became one of the major tobacco markets in the state. Much of this history is depicted in the Heritage Station Museum, which is located in the old Georgia and Florida Railway train station on Ward Street in downtown Douglas.
Douglas has two areas listed on the National Register of Historic Places: downtown and Gaskin Avenue historic districts. They were added to the list in 1989.
Read more about this topic: Douglas, Georgia
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