MAYSVILLE HISTORIC DISTRICT
 
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 The Maysville Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district is located along Gillsville Road, Maysville Road, North Main Street, South Main Street and Homer Street. It covers 1700 acres and 194 buildings and comprises the commercial center, surrounding residences (both intown and farmstead-type houses), and a church, in the corporate limits of Maysville. The community straddles the border of Banks and Jackson counties which runs along the railroad track through half of the town. North and South Main, located on the north side of the railroad, runs northeast to southwest through town. Gillsville Road and Maysville Road, located on the south side of the railroad, also run northeast to southwest. Homer Street intersects these streets and the railroad from the north at the center of town. A network of smaller streets exit off these five principal streets that form the backbone of the district. The district is characterized by both rolling and level terrain. The highest elevations can be found along Homer Street. From this area the land slopes down sharply to a fairly flat area along the railroad tracks and the land to its south and west. The centrally located commercial area is surrounded by three distinct residential areas: a ribbon development that follows the railroad to the northwest; a large area on the hilly land on Homer Street and other streets overlooking the railroad; and an area of the flat terrain along Sims Street to the south of the commercial area laid out with a gridiron plan in 1905. Development is densest at the town center; residential lots become larger towards the edges of town where small farms are located.

The majority of structures in the district date from the 1870s to the 1920s, and almost all are Victorian Eclectic in style. Commercial buildings, located along along the juncture of the five principal streets, are modest one- and two-story, load-bearing brick structures with brick detailing. A number have party walls. They are characterized by corbeled cornices, sign plates, trabeated and arched windows, recessed doorways, large display windows with arched transoms, and metal awnings. Interiors of the commercial structures include wooden floors, plaster walls, and pressed metal ceilings. A number of these buildings still retain their original storefronts.

Of special note are the former Atkins National Bank (now City Hall), the finest commercial building in town which is formally detailed with segmentally arched windows and which retains an intact interior complete with teller cages, bank vault, and pressed metal ceiling, and the former city hall, a simple wood-framed, gable-roofed structure with double-hung sash windows and paneled doors. Two brick warehouses (one substantially altered) and a 1922 service station complete the historic commercial resources.

Residences consist primarily of one-story, wood-framed structures with prominent front porches and modest Victorian detailing. Chamfered and turned posts and sawnwork or spindlework brackets and railings on porches as well as gable-end detailing comprise the principal decorative features. Several one- and one-half and two-story houses are among the elaborate Victorian Eclectic houses in the district.

The McCurdy residence (37 Homer Street) has a Carpenter Gothic-inspired porch across the front facade, an arched entrance pediment with a sunburst design, and boxed cornice returns.

The Hale House (48 North Main) has a two-tiered portico extending across the front facade, Chipendale-inspired porch railings, and decorative woodwork in the gable ends.

The Stephens Hotel (5 South Main) is a large structure with a wraparound porch detailed with bracketed columns and a cutwork railing.

There is one documented antebellum house in the district - the Atkins-Sims House (437 Sims Street)- a large brick, two-story, Greek Revival-influenced house built in 1855. (This house also served as the Rogers Hotel at one point.) There are also a small number of modest houses with simple Craftsman detailing.

The remaining historic church (Maysville United Methodist Church) is a wood-framed Victorian Electic-style building dating from the late 19th century. A 1937 wood-framed gymnasium built by WPA was torn down in the 1980s and the historic Maysville High School burned in 1954. The Maysville Depot burned in the 1950s. The historic Maysville Baptist Church was moved to Jefferson Road near the I-85 bridge overpass and used as the Hurricane Grove Baptist Church. The Maysville Presbyterian Church collapsed during a storm.

Landscaping in the district consists of informally landscaped yards, street trees, open space along the railroad right-of-way, and the city cemetery. Individual yards are planted with shade trees, shrubbery and grass. On the edges of the district are several pecan groves. Rows of street trees appear along portions of Jackson Street and Church Street; along Gillsville Road and North Main large trees in individual yards closed to the street function in a similar capacity. The most dramatic use of street trees is in the Sims Street neighborhood where Georgia Avenue is consistently lined with a mixture of maples, oaks, dogwoods, and crape myrtles and portions of Sims Street still retain a double row of maples and elms. The railroad right-of-way is a wide open space through town and functions as a park in the area between the commercial buildings downtown. The city cemetery, at the eastern edge of the district, is sited on a prominent hill with dramatic views from the older grave sites.

The above information taken from the Maysville Historic District Nomination Form was prepared in 1985 by Dale Jaeger, Jaeger & Associates of Gainesville GA, and Carolyn Brooks, National Register Researcher for the Historic Preservation Section of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in Atlanta.

 

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