Public Works and Buildings of Cedartown, GA
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 34° 00.799 W 085° 15.290
16S E 661146 N 3765005
Small plaza rea at Main St. & Prior St.
Waymark Code: WMPRMP
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 10/14/2015
Views: 4
County of makrer: Polk County
Location of marker: Main St. & Prior St., Cedartown
Marker erected by: Polk County Historical Society
Marker text:
Public Works and Buildings of Cedartown
Northwest Georgia is blessed with many limestone springs. When Van Wert was founded, hollowed out chestnut and cedar logs were fashioned to bring spring water from nearby hills into the village, making it one of the first communities in Northwest Georgia with a municipal water supply. Cedartown's Big Spring was considered sacred by the Cherokee Indians who used it as a water source and council ground. In 1838 Fort Cedar Town was hastily built downstream from the spring to temporarily house Cherokee Indians being forceably removed on the Trail of Tears. When Asa Prior sold the area to the county for development, he stipulated that the spring remain for public use. Just before the Civil War a hydraulic ram system was installed to pump water to the downtown area, and in 1891 Charles Adamson's Cedartown Land Improvement Company built a waterworks building over the spring, still in use today serving as the city's main water supply.
Once Cedartown began building a water system, it established a fire company in 1898. Lacking a proper fire station, Cedartown built its first City Hall to house it in 1901. It was of the Romanesque revival style designed to match the nearby Courthouse and jail, and also included the City Council, recorder's office, and a public auditorium called the Lyceum. A new City Hall, designed by Atlanta architect, O.C. Poundston was built on the site in 1935 with WPA funding. The City Hall was replaced by the Civic Complex in 1976 and became a courthouse annex, now called "Polk County Courthouse Number 2."