Fitzgerald, Georgia | |
|---|---|
 .jpg)     From top, left to right: Fitzgerald City Hall, Herald-Leader Building, City of Fitzgerald Water Tower, Holtzendorf Apartments, Milton Hopkins Memorial Nature Preserve, Grand Theatre | |
 Flag  Seal | |
| Nicknames: City of Heritage, Little Atlanta | |
| Motto(s): "History, Harmony, Heritage"[1] | |
 Location inBen Hill County and the state ofGeorgia | |
| Coordinates:31°42′56″N83°15′23″W / 31.71556°N 83.25639°W /31.71556; -83.25639 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Georgia |
| Counties | Ben Hill andIrwin |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Jason Holt |
| Area | |
• Total | 9.13 sq mi (23.64 km2) |
| • Land | 8.98 sq mi (23.25 km2) |
| • Water | 0.15 sq mi (0.39 km2) |
| Elevation | 360 ft (110 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 9,006 |
| • Density | 1,003.2/sq mi (387.34/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
| ZIP code | 31750 |
| Area code | 229 |
| FIPS code | 13-29528[3] |
| GNIS feature ID | 0355809[4] |
| Website | fitzgeraldga.org |
Fitzgerald is a city in and the county seat ofBen Hill County in the south central portion of theU.S. state ofGeorgia.[6] As of 2020, its population was 9,006.[7] It is the principal city of the Fitzgeraldmicropolitan statistical area, which includes all of Ben Hill andIrwin counties. A small portion of Fitzgerald is in Irwin County.[8]
The city is an agricultural marketing center that growscotton,tobacco, andpeanuts. It is also home to diverse manufactures includingtextiles,lumber, andmetal products.[9]
The city is home to theBlue and Gray Museum, the Grand Theatre, the Milton Hopkins Memorial Nature Preserve, and theFitzgerald chicken topiary. The Ben Hill Irwin Campus ofWiregrass Georgia Technical College is in Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was developed in 1895 by Philander H. Fitzgerald, a newspaper editor fromIndianapolis, Indiana. A formerdrummer boy in theUnion Army during the Civil War, he founded it as a community forwar veterans–both from the Union and from theConfederacy.[10] The majority of the first citizens (some 2700) were Union veterans.[11] It was incorporated on December 2, 1896.[12] The town is located less than 15 miles (24 km) from the site where Confederate presidentJefferson Davis was captured on May 10, 1865.
Fitzgerald was an early planned city. It was laid out as a square, with intersecting streets dividing it into four wards. Each ward was divided into four blocks and each block had sixteen squares.[13] The first two streets running north–south on the west side of the city were named after Confederate generalsRobert E. Lee andJoseph E. Johnston, whereas the first two on the east side were named after Union generalsUlysses S. Grant andWilliam T. Sherman.[14]
After about a year, the residents planned aThanksgiving harvest parade. Separate Union and Confederate parades were planned. But when the band struck up to play, the Confederates joined the Union veterans to march as one under the US flag.[15] At the time there was increasing reconciliation nationwide between white soldiers of the North and South; historianDavid Blight notes that outstanding issues of race were pushed aside. In this era, Southern states had already begun to pass new constitutions that raised barriers to voter registration, followingMississippi's in 1890, and essentiallydisenfranchised most freedmen and many poor whites. By 1900, Fitzgerald was asundown town, prohibiting African Americans from living there.[16]
In recent years the unofficial, and sometimes controversial,mascot of the city has become thered junglefowl, a wild chicken native to theIndian subcontinent. In the late 1960s, a small number were released into the woods surrounding the city and they thrive to this day.[17]
In 2019, work began on theFitzgerald Chicken Topiary, a 62-foot (19 m) tall statue of a chicken near the town center. The statue was envisioned by Mayor Jim Puckett to be a majorroadside attraction with anAirbnb inside.[18] After spending $300,000 of city funds, Puckett was not reelected and the statue has not been completed. If finished, it would be the largest topiary statue in the world.[19]
Fitzgerald is located inSoutheast Georgia at31°42′56″N83°15′23″W / 31.71556°N 83.25639°W /31.71556; -83.25639 (31.715432, -83.256464).[20]U.S. Route 129 passes through the center of the city, leading north toAbbeville,Hawkinsville, and eventuallyMacon, and south toOcilla,Nashville, andLakeland.U.S. Route 319 also passes through Fitzgerald, leading northeast toMcRae andDublin and southwest toTifton.
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.0 square miles (23.3 km2), of which 8.8 square miles (22.9 km2) is land and 0.15 square miles (0.4 km2), or 1.64%, is water.[21]
| Climate data for Fitzgerald, Georgia, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1898–2006 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 84 (29) | 89 (32) | 95 (35) | 95 (35) | 102 (39) | 104 (40) | 106 (41) | 104 (40) | 102 (39) | 97 (36) | 92 (33) | 85 (29) | 106 (41) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 60.1 (15.6) | 64.1 (17.8) | 70.6 (21.4) | 78.0 (25.6) | 84.8 (29.3) | 89.4 (31.9) | 92.4 (33.6) | 90.8 (32.7) | 86.8 (30.4) | 79.5 (26.4) | 69.3 (20.7) | 62.5 (16.9) | 77.4 (25.2) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 49.3 (9.6) | 52.7 (11.5) | 58.9 (14.9) | 65.6 (18.7) | 73.5 (23.1) | 79.6 (26.4) | 82.5 (28.1) | 81.1 (27.3) | 76.3 (24.6) | 67.5 (19.7) | 57.4 (14.1) | 51.5 (10.8) | 66.3 (19.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 38.6 (3.7) | 41.4 (5.2) | 47.3 (8.5) | 53.3 (11.8) | 62.3 (16.8) | 69.8 (21.0) | 72.5 (22.5) | 71.3 (21.8) | 65.9 (18.8) | 55.6 (13.1) | 45.5 (7.5) | 40.5 (4.7) | 55.3 (12.9) |
| Record low °F (°C) | 4 (−16) | −1 (−18) | 17 (−8) | 32 (0) | 42 (6) | 50 (10) | 59 (15) | 55 (13) | 41 (5) | 29 (−2) | 18 (−8) | 7 (−14) | −1 (−18) |
| Averageprecipitation inches (mm) | 4.08 (104) | 3.77 (96) | 4.61 (117) | 3.76 (96) | 2.62 (67) | 4.64 (118) | 4.38 (111) | 5.63 (143) | 3.42 (87) | 2.98 (76) | 2.83 (72) | 4.92 (125) | 47.64 (1,212) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.01 in) | 8.5 | 7.3 | 8.4 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 11.6 | 9.6 | 10.2 | 6.8 | 5.7 | 6.6 | 6.5 | 92.9 |
| Source 1: NOAA[22] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: XMACIS2[23] | |||||||||||||
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 1,817 | — | |
| 1910 | 5,795 | 218.9% | |
| 1920 | 6,870 | 18.6% | |
| 1930 | 6,412 | −6.7% | |
| 1940 | 7,388 | 15.2% | |
| 1950 | 8,130 | 10.0% | |
| 1960 | 8,781 | 8.0% | |
| 1970 | 8,187 | −6.8% | |
| 1980 | 10,187 | 24.4% | |
| 1990 | 8,612 | −15.5% | |
| 2000 | 8,758 | 1.7% | |
| 2010 | 9,053 | 3.4% | |
| 2020 | 9,006 | −0.5% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census[24] | |||
| Race | Num. | Perc. |
|---|---|---|
| White (non-Hispanic) | 3,392 | 37.66% |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 4,804 | 53.34% |
| Native American | 38 | 0.42% |
| Asian | 74 | 0.82% |
| Other/Mixed | 295 | 3.28% |
| Hispanic orLatino | 403 | 4.47% |
At the2020 United States census, there were 9,006 people, 3,346 households, and 1,932 families residing in the city.
By 2022 a part of the city was in Irwin County, but no people lived in that portion.[26]
The Dorminy-Massee House is now operated as abed and breakfast. J. J. (Captain Jack) Dorminy built it in 1915 for his family; the two-story,colonial-style home is listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.[27]
TheBlue and Gray Museum, located in the town's AB&A 1908 railroad depot, houses several artifacts that tell the story of the town's founding.[28] The town also has a city government owned art gallery located in theCarnegie library on the edge of downtown.
The Grand Theatre is a restored 1936Art-Deco movie theater located on Main Street. The cinema is still in operation and seats over 600 patrons in its auditorium. It is also equipped for live concert and drama shows.[29][30]
The City of Fitzgerald puts on the annual Wild Chicken Festival in March to celebrate the wild Burmese chickens roaming the city. The festival includes a parade, artisan market, live music, street vendors, a5K run, acrowing contest, and apinewood derby.[31]
The Fitzgerald Tour of Homes is an event hosted annually and put on by the Fitzgerald Lions Club. It occurs in December and features open tours of local houses decorated forChristmas.[32]
TheU.S. Postal Service operates the Fitzgerald Post Office. The city is the county seat, hosting theBen Hill County Courthouse.
TheBen Hill County School District, which includes all of Ben Hill County,[33] conducts pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of one pre-school, one primary school, an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school.[34] The district has 217 full-time teachers and over 3,395 students.[35]
While the Irwin County portion is in theIrwin County School District,[36] as of 2022 no people live in that portion.[26]
Wiregrass Georgia Technical College – Ben Hill-Irwin Campus is located on the southern end of the county.
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Fitzgerald was home to aminor league baseball team in theGeorgia State League from 1948, the league's first season of operation, through 1952. The team was called theFitzgerald Pioneers. The club had no affiliation with any major league club during the five seasons of operation in the Georgia State League. After the 1952 season, the Fitzgerald Pioneers relocated toSandersville and became the Sandersville Wacos, which were affiliated with theMilwaukee Braves for the 1953 season. The team ended their last season in 1956, under different affiliation.
Fitzgerald got a replacement team for the Pioneers in 1953 when theMoultrie Giants of theGeorgia–Florida League moved to town. The Moultrie club was a charter member of the Georgia–Florida League when it began operations in 1946. After relocating to Fitzgerald and becoming an affiliate of theCincinnati Redlegs, the new edition of the Fitzgerald Pioneers lasted one season (1954) saw the team name changed to theFitzgerald Redlegs. After two years in Fitzgerald, the club returned to Moultrie. It ceased operating in 1958 under the nameBrunswick Phillies.
After the Fitzgerald Redlegs left, the city was without a team for the 1955 season. The next year theCordele club relocated to Fitzgerald after ten seasons in Cordele. They changed affiliation back to what were now called theKansas City A's, and theFitzgerald A's played for the 1956 season. In 1957, the club again changed its affiliation, to the Baltimore Orioles; the club was known as theFitzgerald Orioles for the 1957 season. The Fitzgerald team relocated toDublin, Georgia after the 1957 season and remained a Baltimore Orioles farm team; they played as theDublin Orioles for the Georgia–Florida League's last year of operation. Fitzgerald has not had a minor league team in the 63 years since.
In the colony of Fitzgerald, in Georgia, there are very few negroes, and not one allowed to live in the city of Fitzgerald. The founders of this colony and the builders of this city are all Western people, and many of them old Union soldiers. But they met and solved the race problem by keeping the races separate and drawing, not only the color line, but the land line on the negro.
Municipalities and communities ofBen Hill County, Georgia,United States | ||
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| City |  | |
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
Municipalities and communities ofIrwin County, Georgia,United States | ||
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| Cities |  | |
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
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| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
