Auto Garage, South side of State Route 124 between Harrison Street & State Route 53, Braselton

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2408. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Auto Garage is a contributing historic resource in the existing Braselton National Register of Historic Places District and represents the automobile-oriented commercial significance of the district. It is part of a second group of historic commercial resources located at the southwest corner of State Route 53 and State Route Constructed ca. this building is associated with the increased use of the automobile during the historic period. Located at the center of commercial activity, the Auto Garage served as a retail center for automobile-related services for portions of three counties, including western Jackson, northwestern Barrow, and southeastern Hall counties. The Auto Garage is also architecturally significant as an extant example of an early twentieth century commercial garage.

Character-defining features of the one-story building include its rectangular floor plan, wood- frame construction, front gable roof, and two large bay openings. AUTO GARAGE HABS No. GA-2408 (Page 2) PART

Descriptive Information

The Braselton Auto Garage is a one-story rectangular-shaped commercial building sited north to south and oriented north toward State Route 124 on a acre parcel of land. It is representative of an early twentieth century commercial building used as an automobile garage. The building is of wood frame construction and the exterior walls are clad with galvanized sheet metal. The front gable roof is clad with standing seam metal roofing painted red. The roof has a wide overhanging eave with exposed rafters. There is no cornice associated with the building. The main doorway of the building is a single large wooden door located at the north elevation (fa ade). The door is covered with the same sheet metal as the exterior wall siding.

A simple 1 x 4 flat wood board serves as the casing at the jamb and head. The head casing is capped with 1 x 2 flat hood trim along its horizontal length. The door is attached to the casing by four metal strap hinges and has no other visible exterior hardware. There are four windows in the building, with two located on each of the east and west elevations. These are six-over-six double hung wood sash and frames with casings of flat boards at the jambs and head. There are no shutters on the windows. The windows are in deteriorated condition, with many of the sash and panes broken and missing. The garage is sited facing north to south toward State Route The site slopes down from north to south away from the roadway.

The garage is located in a wooded area and is currently overgrown with vegetation. The current condition of the Auto Garage is poor. Abandoned for some unknown period of time, the building has not been properly maintained. The site is overgrown with vegetation and there are no outbuildings associated with the building.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2408. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION The Braselton Auto Garage was constructed ca. The architect and builder are not known. The building has a one-story rectangular-shaped plan and faces north toward State Route It was historically used for commercial purposes as an auto garage. Though the building is currently vacant and in poor condition, it retains the potential for continued commercial use. Based on signage located at the fa ade, the building appears to have served a retail use as Terry s This & That Barn at some time in the past. It has been owned by Braselton Ventures LLC since June Previous owners include Madison Ventures Limex and Braselton Acquisitions. AUTO GARAGE HABS No. GA-2408 (Page 3) Braselton is located in southwestern Jackson County in northeast Georgia.

Jackson County is the state s twenty-second county, created in from portions of Franklin County that was originally the home of the Cherokee and Creek Indians. Jackson County Following the end of the Revolutionary War, veterans and other pioneers began settling in parts of Franklin County, one of Georgia s original eleven counties, in As the population increased, citizens in the southwestern portion of the county made application to the state assembly for the creation of a new county. On February 11, Georgia Governor Jared Irwin signed the act creating the new county. The county was named Jackson for James Jackson, who was a Revolutionary War general and Georgia statesman.

Jackson served six years with the Georgia state forces and participated in the unsuccessful defense of Savannah in the Battle of Cowpens in and the recoveries of Augusta and Savannah He went on to serve in the Georgia Legislature after the war and was elected to the first Federal Congress, where he became one of the first Jeffersonians in opposition to Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists. He later served in the U.S. Senate before returning to Georgia to overturn the Yazoo Act that had sold Georgia s western lands to unscrupulous speculators.

He later served as Georgia s Governor from to Early Towns The first settlement in Jackson County was Groaning Rock in The town changed its name to Harmony Grove in and again to Commerce in The Native American community of Thomocoggan was renamed Jefferson after Thomas Jefferson and became the new county seat in following the creation of Clarke County from portions of Jackson County in Other communities developed along the pattern of railroad lines in Jackson County, including Maysville in Arcade, Nicholson, Pendergrass, Talmo, Hoschton, and Braselton. Braselton Braselton was founded in following the marriage of William Henry Braselton, Sr. to Susan Hosch on December 11, The Braselton s lived in Hoschton, Georgia on the Hosch family plantation for a number of years following their marriage.

It was there that their first two sons, Henry and Green, were born. The Braselton family first began farming the present site of Braselton after the Braselton s purchased 800 acres of land near the Hosch home from Smith on December 8, The family lived in a log cabin on their property, where a third son, John Oliver, and two daughters, Belle and Lena, were born. Braselton Stores The Town of Braselton began when John Oliver Braselton, the youngest son of William and Susan, decided at the age of eight years old that he would become a storekeeper. In John s father, William Braselton, built a small six-by-six foot structure to be his son s store. From this AUTO GARAGE HABS No.

GA-2408 (Page 4) small building in the front yard of their house, John sold some foodstuffs including sweet crackers and sardines, snuff and tobacco, and rock candy to local farm hands. John sold a grand total of worth of goods and merchandise in his first year of business. After the first store was destroyed in by a runaway horse and buggy, a second larger store measuring 14 x 16 was constructed. This second store was large enough to have a window. 60) That same year, John invited his older brother, Green Braselton, to join the store. And by the oldest brother, William Henry, Jr. joined the business. They became locally known as the Three B s.

The house currently located in the overgrown lot on the northeast corner of State Route 53 and State Route 124 behind the Post Office was originally built as John Braselton s second one-room store. This building was later enlarged into a residence during the historic period. With their continued success, the Braselton s replaced the second store with a larger third store in measuring 22 x 50 . As business continued to increase, the brothers added twenty-two additional feet to this third store. The Braselton Brothers built their stores close to the junction of State Route 53 and State Route 124 and the Gainesville, Jefferson and Social Circle Railroad. The roads had been in place for some time prior, but the rail line had been built in and spurred growth in the area.

Local farmers had access to shipping and receiving large cargoes of agricultural goods. Before the completion of the railroad through Braselton, farmers used the freight station located in Hoschton, a town just south of Braselton. In a side-track of the railroad was installed along what is today Wall Street behind the store. The brothers had erected a large 24 x 120 warehouse along the spur track to store merchandise that they purchased by the railroad car-load. Business continued to increase so the brothers erected a fourth store. Construction began on the new brick building on March 1, and was completed on September 1st of that same year.

An article in the February 18, Atlanta Saturday Evening News entitled The Wonderful Progress of 3 Young Men described the new store as having every modern convenience and is the most substantial up-to-date and prettiest storehouse in northeast Georgia. This article also described the building as follows: This handsome new brick store is 60 x 95 feet, with 14 feet walls and a basement 30 x 60 feet. The main floor is divided into three departments one for dry goods, notions and shoes; one for millinery and clothing; one for groceries and the basement for heavy groceries. It has a solid plate glass front of 60 feet with iron columns made at the Winder Foundry and Machine Works, which firm had to compete with a large plant in Evansville, Ind. to secure this contract for furnishing the columns.

The entire building, including basement, is lighted by acetylene gas, requiring 730 candles. This AUTO GARAGE HABS No. GA-2408 (Page 5) is the brightest light known and makes this large store, with its different departments, a thing of beauty when lighted up at night. The building also has two handsome and well arranged offices, one of them being the private office. The dry goods department is one of the prettiest store rooms in Georgia, being 36 x 60 feet. The Millinery and Clothing department, 20 by 60 feet, is a model of beauty and artistic design. The grocery department 30 x 36 feet, is equal in appearance to most stores and is fitted with heavy groceries. Mr.

Baker, who superintended the building of this magnificent store, can afford to feel proud of the construction and workmanship, as it cannot be surpassed. 1 By the time this new brick store was constructed, the business had expanded from candy to dry goods, notions, shoes, millinery, clothing, and groceries. Already the largest building in Braselton, the store was expanded to square feet in with the addition of a three-story building to provide additional space for the store and offices.

By the Braselton Brothers Store housed the store as well as the local post office, the offices and freight depot of the Gainesville Midland Railroad, the local express office, Braselton Bank Company, Braselton Chamber of Commerce, a wholesale general merchandise company known as the Braselton Commission Company, and space for over 500 bales of cotton in the warehouse section of the building. By the Braselton Mercantile Company was doing per year in business and the company motto was Dealers in Everything. 2 With the rise in the automobile, the Braselton Brothers slogan changed to It will pay you to drive miles to our big store and save money. By additional businesses included undertaker, barber shop, filling station, garage, planing mill, and blacksmith.

Also during the and the brothers added two additional one-story masonry sections to the side of the original building. The first section (now the middle section) housed the Super Market department and the second section (now the far left section) housed the Furniture and Appliance departments. Agriculture Agriculture has played a dominant economic role in Georgia s history for more than 250 years, beginning with the settlement by General James Oglethorpe and the English colonists in Early crops that were grown include corn, silk, indigo, and rice. Cotton and tobacco became the primary crops after the Revolutionary War, with cotton soon dominating agricultural production following the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in in Savannah.

By there were farms in the state producing some bales of cotton. Cotton continued to dominate production after the Civil War, with more than bales produced in Braselton was one of the richest and most fertile farming sections of Georgia during the late- nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Crops grown in the region included corn, pea-hay, sugar 1 Leta G. Braselton. Treasured Memories of the Braseltons 3B s ; Atlanta, Georgia: The Conger Printing Co., Inc., 61. 2 Ibid, 76 AUTO GARAGE HABS No. GA-2408 (Page 6) cane, and cotton. William Henry Braselton, father to the had been a successful farmer during his lifetime, and the brothers continued that success.

They continued to produce crops on their farm of acres and produced on average anywhere from 700 to 800 bushels of wheat, 150 to 200 bales of cotton, and thousands of bushels of corn per year. 3 They produced and distributed hundreds of tons of their own private label brand of fertilizer known as the BBB brand. Industry The presence of the railroad spurred industrial development to take advantage of the agricultural production of the area. In the Braselton Brothers had constructed the large rolling mill to the south of the store on the west side of State Route 53.

The rolling mill, known as the Enterprise Flour and Grist Mill, was one of the earliest fully-operating rolling mills in northeast Georgia and survives today as a rare representative example of an early-twentieth century steam- powered rolling mill in Georgia. According to the article in the Atlanta Saturday Evening News, the rolling mill had the capacity to produce 50 to 75 barrels of flour and 300 bushels of meal per day. The brothers sold their products under the labels of the Three B s and Fast Flyer. 4 Following the construction in of the railroad spur along Wall Street described above, the Braselton Brothers constructed a Cotton Gin along the siding during the early The gin contained a complete Murray suction ginning system and had the capacity to gin some bales of cotton per season.

5 The ability to ship cotton directly from Braselton made it possible to keep more money in the community rather than pay dealers in Gainesville, Jefferson or Athens to process the cotton. This led to an expansion of the family businesses and an overall increase in wealth for the Braselton family and residents. The Braselton Brothers played the central role in bringing the new technology of the telephone to Braselton in the early-twentieth century. In the brothers partnered with Judge R. B.

Russell of Winder to purchase an existing telephone system from Hoschton that had begun there in The Hoschton Telephone Company headquarters with its plug or drop system switchboard were later transferred to a small two-room house in Braselton in The telephone service grew from just five subscribers in the early to some 230 by 6 Braselton Incorporated Braselton was incorporated on August 21, with Braselton as mayor. The town limits were defined as follows upon incorporation: The inhabitants of the territory, embraced within the limits of one half of one mile in every direction (except the southern limits herein after 3 Robbie L. Bettis. Passing: Stories through the history of Hoschton and Braselton, Georgia. Auburn, Georgia: NHB Publishing, 82.

4 Ibid, 82 5 Braselton, 61 6 Ibid, 75 AUTO GARAGE HABS No. GA-2408 (Page 7) described) from the center of the crossroads of what is known as the Hog Mountain and Hurricane Shoals public road, and the Gainesville and Monroe public road, said crossroads being near the store of Braselton Brothers, in the county of Jackson, and the southern limits on the southeast shall run south. 7 Shortly after incorporation, the Braselton Brothers paid for the construction of a high school in (though the school was destroyed the following year during a storm). Braselton continued to grow during the with the construction of more housing and commercial buildings. The next year, was one of the worst years for the Braselton Brothers.

Not only did the cotton market crash in Georgia and the south, but a tornado swept through Braselton destroying the brand new school, the rear fourth of the brick store, and the old frame store, among other buildings in town. In addition to the loss from the physical destruction caused by the tornado, the Braselton Brothers lost from customers unable to pay their bills at the store. While the financial losses from the cotton crash and tornado were devastating, the Braselton Brothers would recover, not only due to their continued tenacity but also with help from many people from bankers to their customers. When the time came to pay their loans to the banks, the bankers told them not to worry and sent to help with repairs to the store.

In addition, many of their customers sent money, usually in nickels and dimes. All told, they received some in gifts to help rebuild their damaged store. But in true 3B fashion, the brothers did not spend any of this money on the store, but instead donated it toward the rebuilding of the school that had also been destroyed by the tornado. The depression in the posed little threat for the local economy because the agricultural products were comprised of staples rather than luxuries. The Braselton Brothers businesses continued to thrive during this period as their customers came from surrounding counties. As in most agricultural areas, the local businesses extended credit through the year and were paid when the crops were sold.

Braselton did better than most communities in this endeavor because the Braselton Brothers charged much less than other merchants for this carrying fee. When most Georgia merchants were charging to carry a sack of flour worth the Braseltons were charging their customers The net result was that more people came to Braselton to transact their business rather than going to other nearby towns of similar and even larger size. 7 Angela Gary and Jana Adams. Our Time and Place: A History of Jackson County, Georgia. Jefferson, Georgia: Main Street Newspapers, Inc., AUTO GARAGE HABS No. GA-2408 (Page 8) In Braselton was a thriving town in northeast Georgia.

In addition to the store, the Braseltons were operating the warehouse for cotton, cotton seed, and fertilizer; the rolling mill and gin; shops; filling station; marble yard; depot; post office; private bank; and the high school. 8 While cotton production was declining during the late and Braselton residents transitioned from agricultural to manufacturing jobs. Textile mills, manufacturing plants, and poultry dressing plants moved into the area. Poultry production began in the county around and has increased tremendously over the past forty years such that Northeast Georgia has become one of the nation s leading poultry-producing regions.

Following the end of World War II, the importance of Braselton shifted from a regional agricultural business center to that of a more regional shopping center. Braselton was an established mid-point between Gainesville and Winder, which resulted in commercial traffic moving through the town. Braselton became a convenient shipping and mercantile center for produce and goods during the mid twentieth century. Following the establishment of the large regional shopping malls, the Braselton commercial core slowly started to decline. As late as the Braselton Brothers Store still housed a grocery, hardware, furniture, appliance, and dry goods store. Today, the Braselton Store houses several retail stores including the Braselton Tile Company and Braselton Antiques Shop.

Despite the changes to the Braselton commercial core, the town has grown both physically and economically in more recent years. Having expanded its boundaries, major attractions and companies located in Braselton, turning the once rural farming community and commercial center into a thriving residential and manufacturing area in northeast Georgia. These major attractions and companies include Chateau Elan, a acre resort and winery; the Panoz Motor Sports Group and Panoz Auto Development Company that builds the handmade Panoz Esperante sports car; the International Motor Sports Association; the Mayfield Dairy Visitors Center; and Haverty's Distribution Center. 8 Braselton, 92 AUTO GARAGE HABS No. GA-2408 (Page 9) PART III.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION Braselton , New Georgia Encyclopedia: (January The Braselton Historic District; National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, on file at the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Braselton, Leta G. Treasured Memories of the Braseltons 3B s ; Atlanta, Georgia: The Conger Printing Co., Inc., Braselton, Leta G. Yesterday and Today: The Braselton Family Album. Atlanta, Georgia: The Conger Printing Co., Inc, Cotton Ginning and Rural Life in Georgia. A booklet from the Georgia Agrirama (the State Museum of Agriculture) and Westville Historic Handicrafts, Inc. Dak, Mary Braselton, ed. Ancestors and Descendants of William Henry Braselton. Gainesville Litho Company: Gainesville, Georgia, Elrod, Frary.

Historical Notes on Jackson County, Georgia: Jefferson, Georgia, Gary, Angela and Jana Adams. Our Time and Place: A History of Jackson County, Georgia. Jefferson, Georgia: Main Street Newspapers, Inc., Georgia s Living Places: Historic Houses in Their Landscaped Settings, on file at the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Harris, Tina, ed. Portraits of a Southern Place: A Pictorial History of Early Jackson County, Georgia. Jackson County Historical Society: Commerce, Georgia, Jackson County , New Georgia Encyclopedia: (January Jackson County Tax Records; Jackson County Administrative Center Steward, William C. Gone to Georgia: Jackson and Gwinnett Counties and their Neighbors in the Western Migration.

Washington, Tilling the Earth: Georgia s Historic Agricultural Heritage, on file at the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. White, W.E., ed. The Early History of Jackson County, Georgia. Atlanta AUTO GARAGE HABS No. GA-2408 (Page 10) PART IV. PROJECT INFORMATION This HABS documentation was completed as mitigation for the National Register of Historic Places listed Braselton Historic District that is being negatively impacted by the Intersection Realignment of State Route 53 and State Route Project Number TSAPO-S006-00(782), P.I.N. HP Jackson County, Department of the Army (DA) Permit Application Number The measured drawings were prepared by Jihan Stanford, preservation architect with Lord Aeck Sargent, Inc.

The photography was produced by David Diener, director of graphics and photographer with New South Associates. This report was prepared by Glen H. Bennett, preservation planner with Lord Aeck Sargent, Inc. These records were produced in AUTO GARAGE HABS No. GA-2408 (Page 11) Sketch Plan: Delineator: Jihan Stanford Location Map: