Newnan, Georgia | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Flag  Seal  Logo | |
| Motto: City of Homes | |
 Location inCoweta County and the state ofGeorgia | |
  Newnan Location ofNewnan inMetro Atlanta | |
| Coordinates:33°22′35″N84°47′19″W / 33.37639°N 84.78861°W /33.37639; -84.78861 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Georgia |
| County | Coweta |
| Incorporated (city) | December 20, 1828 |
| Area | |
• Total | 19.82 sq mi (51.34 km2) |
| • Land | 19.47 sq mi (50.44 km2) |
| • Water | 0.35 sq mi (0.90 km2) |
| Elevation | 971 ft (296 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 42,549 |
| • Density | 2,184.9/sq mi (843.58/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
| ZIP Codes | 30263–30265, 30271 |
| Area codes | 770,678 |
| FIPS code | 13-55020[2] |
| GNIS feature ID | 0332499[3] |
| Website | newnanga |
Newnan is a city in and thecounty seat ofCoweta County, Georgia, United States, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest ofAtlanta. Its population was 42,549 at the2020 census,[4] up from 33,039 in2010.
Newnan was established as county seat of Coweta County (replacing the defunct town of Bullsboro) in 1828, and was named for North Carolinian GeneralDaniel Newnan. It quickly became a prosperous magnet for lawyers, doctors, other professionals, and merchants. Much of Newnan's prosperity was due to its thriving cotton industry, which relied onslavery.
Newnan was largely untouched by theCivil War due to its status as a hospital city (for bothUnion andConfederate troops), and as a result still features muchantebellum architecture.[5] During theAtlanta campaign, Confederate cavalry defeated Union forces at the nearbyBattle of Brown's Mill. Subsequently, architect Kennon Perry (1890–1954) designed many of the town's early 20th-century homes.
On April 23, 1899, a lynching occurred after an African-American man by the name ofSam Hose (born Tom Wilkes) was accused of killing his boss, Alfred Cranford. Hose was abducted from police custody, paraded through Newnan, tortured, and burned alive just north of town by a lynch mob of roughly 2,000 citizens of Coweta County.
Newnan was also host to the trial in 1948 of wealthy landownerJohn Wallace, the first White man in the South to be condemned to death by the testimony ofAfrican Americans, two field hands who were made to help with burning the body of murdered white sharecropper Wilson Turner. These events were portrayed in the novelMurder in Coweta County.
In 1968,Kmart opened a warehouse in Newnan, which slowly established it as a major hub for distribution in the area.[6] TheInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters attempted to unionize the warehouse, but the attempt was defeated when the employees voted 329 to 201 in favor of remaining union-free.[7] In 2015, the distribution center closed with a loss of 164 jobs.[8]
In the early morning hours ofMarch 26, 2021, Newnan was directly impacted by aviolent EF4 tornado, which caused substantial structural damage and indirectly killed one person. The tornado was one of the strongest on record in Georgia since 1950, and directly impacted the historic downtown area.[9]Newnan High School was re-built after sustaining serious damage.[10]
Newnan is located in the center of Coweta County.U.S. Route 29 passes through the center of the city, leading northeast 13 miles (21 km) toPalmetto and south 7 miles (11 km) toMoreland.Interstate 85 passes through the eastern side of the city, with access from exits 41, 44, and 47. I-85 leads northeast 40 miles (64 km) to downtownAtlanta and southwest 125 miles (201 km) toMontgomery, Alabama.U.S. Route 27A leads northwest from the center of Newnan 22 miles (35 km) toCarrollton.
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, Newnan has a total area of 18.6 square miles (48.3 km2), of which 0.35 square miles (0.9 km2), or 1.88%, is covered by water.[11]
The climate is moderate with an average temperature of 64.3 °F (45.8° in the winter and 79.1° in the summer). The average annual rainfall is 51.84 inches.
| Climate data for Newnan, Georgia | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 52 (11) | 58 (14) | 65 (18) | 73 (23) | 80 (27) | 86 (30) | 89 (32) | 88 (31) | 83 (28) | 73 (23) | 64 (18) | 55 (13) | 72 (22) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 31 (−1) | 33 (1) | 40 (4) | 47 (8) | 56 (13) | 64 (18) | 68 (20) | 67 (19) | 62 (17) | 49 (9) | 41 (5) | 33 (1) | 49 (10) |
| Averageprecipitation inches (mm) | 5.49 (139) | 5.14 (131) | 5.95 (151) | 4.17 (106) | 4.37 (111) | 3.99 (101) | 4.66 (118) | 4.00 (102) | 3.24 (82) | 2.86 (73) | 4.18 (106) | 4.27 (108) | 52.32 (1,329) |
| Average snowfall inches (cm) | 0.8 (2.0) | 0.5 (1.3) | 0.4 (1.0) | 0.1 (0.25) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0.2 (0.51) | 2 (5.06) |
| Source: The Weather Channel[12] | |||||||||||||
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | 2,546 | — | |
| 1870 | 1,917 | −24.7% | |
| 1880 | 2,006 | 4.6% | |
| 1890 | 2,859 | 42.5% | |
| 1900 | 3,654 | 27.8% | |
| 1910 | 5,548 | 51.8% | |
| 1920 | 7,037 | 26.8% | |
| 1930 | 6,386 | −9.3% | |
| 1940 | 7,182 | 12.5% | |
| 1950 | 8,218 | 14.4% | |
| 1960 | 12,169 | 48.1% | |
| 1970 | 11,205 | −7.9% | |
| 1980 | 11,449 | 2.2% | |
| 1990 | 12,497 | 9.2% | |
| 2000 | 16,242 | 30.0% | |
| 2010 | 33,039 | 103.4% | |
| 2020 | 42,549 | 28.8% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census[13] | |||
| Race | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| White (non-Hispanic) | 21,206 | 49.84% |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 13,033 | 30.63% |
| Hispanic orLatino | 4,521 | 10.63% |
| Asian | 1,879 | 4.42% |
| Other/mixed | 1,819 | 4.28% |
| Native American | 69 | 0.16% |
| Pacific Islander | 22 | 0.05% |
As of the2020 United States census, there were 42,549 people, 15,135 households, and 10,013 families residing in the city.
The city is home to one of the few Georgia counties with a museum that focuses mainly on African-American history. The Coweta County African American Heritage Museum and Research Center, or Caswell House, was opened in July 2003 in a donated mill village house once owned by Ruby Caswell. The museum sits on Farmer Street on an old, unmarked slave cemetery. It has collected hundreds of family genealogical records by interviewing residents and going through the census records.[15] The museum also houses the Coweta Census Indexes from 1870 to 1920.[16]
The first Black library in the county was the Sara Fisher Brown Library. Built in the 1950s, the library has since been converted into the Community Action For Improvement Center.[17]
The Farmer Street Cemetery is the largest slave cemetery in the South, and may be the largest undisturbed one in the nation. It is within the city limits of Newnan.
TheBoots On the Ground (song) is strongly associated with the Boots On the Ground soulline dance created by Newnan native Jaterrious Trésean Little, aka Trè Little.[18]
TheCoweta County School District holds preschool to grade 12, and consists of 19 elementary schools, seven middle schools, and three high schools.[19] The district has 1,164 full-time teachers and over 18,389 students.[20]
Mercer University has a regional academic center in Newnan. The center opened in 2010, and offers programs through the university's College of Continuing and Professional Studies.
TheUniversity of West Georgia has a campus located in Newnan, near downtown. This campus currently has two undergraduate programs - Bachelor of Science in nursing and early childhood education.[21]
Newnan is also home to a campus ofWest Georgia Technical College.[22]
College Temple, a non-sectarian women's school, operated during the period of 1854–1888.[23]
The public trolley operates between downtown andThe Forum at Ashley Park.[24] In addition, the city is served by route 453 of the GRTA Xpress bus service, which operates between the Newnan Park and Ride and the Lakewood/Fort McPherson MARTA rail station.[25]
Until the mid-1950s theCentral of Georgia operated two trains daily in each direction, through Newnan from Atlanta to Columbus, in itsMan O' War service. The Central continued a singleMan O' War train until 1971 when Amtrak took over most interstate passenger service.[27][28][29][30] Until 1970, the city was a stop on theSouthern Railway'sCrescent from New Orleans to New York City, via Atlanta.[31][32] Into the mid-1960s, the Southern'sCrescent andPiedmont Limited made stops in both directions in Newnan.[33]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
|  | |||||
| ||||||
Municipalities and communities ofCoweta County, Georgia,United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cities |  | |
| Towns | ||
| CDP | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
Historic districts in metro Atlanta | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clayton County |  | |
| Cobb County | ||
| Coweta County | ||
| DeKalb County |
| |
| Douglas County | ||
| Fulton County |
| |
| Gwinnett County | ||
| Hall County | ||
| Newton County |
| |
| Rockdale County | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
