Widespread pecan cultivation began in southwestern Georgia in the 1880s and by the 1920s, with the spread of the boll weevil, supplanted cotton for a time as the leading crop of the region. Albany served as the de facto center of this agricultural shift, and by 1913 the Albany District Pecan Growers Exchange was formed as a cooperative to promote and distribute the crop, especially the desirable Schley paper-shells. The Exchange thrived until the 1940s, when disease slowed the progress of the industry. The headquarters/office building of the Exchange is the only remaining structure of the complex, which included two other warehouse and grading buildings.

National Register of Historic Places