This eclectic house, featuring Neoclassical, and Italianate details, was most recently known as the Rusch Home and operated as a bed and breakfast inn. I’m not sure of the identities of the earlier owners.
This house is dated to 1918 in the only architectural survey I’ve been able to locate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it dated to the late 19th century. It’s an eclectic example of the vernacular I-House, or Plantation Plain, style which was very common in 19th-century Georgia. The Queen Anne gable gives the house a Folk Victorian appearance.
Update: Blake Wilbanks, the current steward and owner of this home, writes: “The book Palmetto: a town and its people tells the story of Bud Holly who was born in the house in 1903. His parents married in 1900. The theory is that the house was built for their wedding.“
Note: This replaces a post originally published in 2017, necessitated by formatting changes.
This U. S. Highway 29 marker explains the origin of Palmetto’s name: Palmetto was named by a member of the Palmetto Guards, a Regiment from South Carolina en route to the Mexican War. This was in appreciation of the hospitality shown them by the community while encamped here in January 1847.
Palmetto was originally part of old Campbell County, which was annexed by Fulton County in 1931.
The obelisk was placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1906.
The marker placed by the Georgia Historical Commission in 1956 notes: The Army of Tennessee [Confederate] abandoned Atlanta Sept. 2, 1864, moved to Lovejoy, then to Palmetto, Sept. 19. Most of the Army entrenched 3 miles N. Gen. John B. Hood had headquarters here from Sept. 19 to 29, 1864. Pres. Jefferson Davis visited here Sept. 25th and on the 26th made a speech to the troops 3 miles N. where he was serenaded by the 20th Louisiana Ban. That same night Gen. Howell Cobb and Gov. Isham Harris of Tenn. spoke. On the 27th Pres. Davis left for Montgomery. Gen. Hardee was relieved of his command here, Sept. 28, and on the 29th Gen. Hood moved from here to start the disastrous Tennessee Campaign.
This depot served Palmetto until the mid-1960s when it was transferred to the city for municipal use. It went through a long state of decline before a full restoration was completed in 2012. It now houses a museum and event spaces.
This is one of three masonry underpasses in Palmetto. There’s another nearby, at Fairburn. The Palmetto examples are contemporary to the Atlanta & West Point Railroad depot and may have been built by the railroad. They’re really amazing examples of engineering, considering they’ve been in use for 99 years and have carried millions of tons of freight over the past century.
Walking around the commercial area of Palmetto, you quickly forget you’re in the most populous county in Georgia.
The historic structures are concentrated on Toombs Street and Main Street.
The architecture is very typical turn-of-the-century commercial design.
Though I haven’t done a deep dive into its history, The Farmers Bank likely suffered the same fate as hundreds of other Georgia banks of this era and was likely closed by the outset of the Great Depression. Georgia, along with other Deep South states, felt the effects of the Depression about a decade before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, thanks to the boll weevil and its impact on cotton prices.
The history of Methodists in the area of present-day Palmetto began in 1828 with Horton Ballard requesting pastoral services from the Reverend William Stegall, who appointed a preacher.[At this time, this area was located in the no-longer-extant Campbell County]. First services were held in the home of Horton Ballard. A log meeting house, known as Ballard’s Meeting House [or Concord], was constructed in 1828. A few years later the membership increased to the point that another church, known as Watts Meeting House, for Major L. B. Watts.
The churches merged and became Hearn’s Meeting House, located between Concord and Watts, circa 1834. Nearby associated congregations were Jones Campground (1840) and New Hope (1843). Members of Jones Campground church and Sabbath School moved to Palmetto in 1851. A wooden church was built on this site in 1852 and replaced by the present brick structure in 1872.
This Colonial Revival house, was designed by the Atlanta firm of Butt & Morris for Palmetto mayor Thomas P. Arnold. Upon his death it went to his son, Thomas P. Arnold, Jr., who also served as mayor of Palmetto.
National Register of Historic Places