Summerville, (commonly referred to locally as "The Hill"), is a large, affluent residential area and

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located northwest of downtown

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...

. The district is site of the historic homes of

John Milledge John Milledge (1757February 9, 1818) was an American politician. He fought in the American Revolution and later served as United States Representative, 26th Governor of Georgia, and United States Senator. Milledge was a founder of Athens, Ge ...

George Walton George Walton (c. 1749 – February 2, 1804), a Founding Father of the United States, signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Georgia and also served as the second chief executive of Georgia. Early life Wal ...

, and

Thomas Cumming Thomas Cumming was an American merchant of the 18th century who built up a large commercial empire in West Africa. He is best known for the role he played in the 1758 Capture of Senegal in which he submitted a plan to the British war leader Wi ...

History

18th century

Summerville was built in the 1780s, and established as a separate village from the city of Augusta.

19th century

During the mid to late 1810s, downtown Augusta experienced a small epidemic of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, which caused little effect in Summerville. In 1820, a major outbreak of

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a body temperature, temperature above the human body temperature, normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, set point. There is not a single ...

nearly wiped out the entire garrison at the U.S. Arsenal. After a recommendation from an officer, the U.S. Arsenal purchased land that is the present-day site of Augusta University. The Sheraton-Bon Air Hotel, Augusta, Georgia (8342846907)

The Sheraton-Bon Air Hotel, Augusta, Georgia (8342846907)

By 1850, Summerville became a four-season community. More permanent buildings and year-round homes sprang up as the town prospered. In 1861, Summerville was officially incorporated as a city with the boundaries defined as a circle for one-mile. Later on, Summerville became a fashionable luxury resort and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

capital with the construction of many hotels. This caused a large transformation — from a small summer resort for local residents to a winter playground for wealthy industrialists and politicians from the

northern United States The Northern United States, commonly referred to as the American North, the Northern States, or simply the North, is a geographical or historical region of the United States. History Early history Before the 19th century westward expansion, the "N ...

. Two hotels, The Partridge Inn and the Bon Air Hotel, hosted captains of industry and former

presidents of the United States The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and ...

. Some built winter homes in the area, while others stayed permanently, escaping the harsh winters of the northern U.S.

20th century

When the city of Augusta

annex Annex or Annexe refers to a building joined to or associated with a main building, providing additional space or accommodations. It may also refer to: Places * The Annex, a neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada * The Annex (New H ...

ed Summerville in 1912, it lost its status as a separate town. Four years later, a fire swept through downtown Augusta, destroying much of the business district and neighborhoods along lower Broad Street. This caused a housing boom for Summerville.

21st century

Residents of Summerville and surrounding neighborhoods plan to meet on December 4, 2022 to discuss re-establishing Summerville as a city separate from Augusta–Richmond County. Local attorney Wright McLeod cites public safety, taxation, and the inefficiency of the consolidated government as reasons from splitting from Augusta–Richmond County.

Historic district

On May 22, 1980, Summerville was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, bounding from Highland Ave., Heard Ave., Wrightsboro Rd., Milledge Rd., and Cumming Rd.

Historic sites

* Summerville Cemetery *Appleby Library *

Augusta Arsenal The Augusta Arsenal was a 19th-century fortification in Augusta, Georgia. Established in 1816 and initially completed on the Georgia bank of the Savannah River in 1819, it was moved to the former Belle Vue estate in the Summerville (Augusta, Georgi ...

* Partridge Inn — historic hotel that opened in 1860, many northerners stayed to escape the winters of the North (open to this day) * Stephen Vincent Benet House — historic home on campus of Augusta University * College Hill — home of

from 1795 to his death in 1804 *Bon Air Hotel * Reid-Jones-Carpenter House - Individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it now houses the Alan Fuqua Center for Young People.

Architecture

Structures

The

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

of Summerville include examples of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

, and many other types. Engine Company No

References

External links

— district map (Adobe Acrobat format)
Summerville Historic District (National Park Service)
{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Augusta, Georgia Geography of Augusta, Georgia Houses in Augusta, Georgia