The Railroad Tallapoosa Sold Before It Was Built

The train that came

Tallapoosa already had a post office by 1849. Its old crossroads lay near today’s Broad Street and Arbacoochee Road. When the Georgia Pacific came through in 1882, the tracks passed about three-quarters of a mile south. A local correspondent reported that some residents had wanted the depot closer. [2] [3] [4]

The depot gave merchants and land sellers a new place to do business. For his November 22 lot auction, Atlanta real estate agent George W. Adair advertised a $1.50 round trip by special train. Six days later, Thomas A. Frierson advertised his own train, free barbecue and a brass band. He urged buyers to wait for his sale of lots around the depot. [5] [6]

People could ride the Georgia Pacific and see where they might build a store or a house. Within a decade, promoters were asking people much farther away to invest in what could come next.

A share of Tallapoosa for $3.33⅓

In February 1891, someone reading the Chase County Courant in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, could buy a share in the Georgia-Alabama Investment and Development Company for $3.33⅓. The ad named a local sales agent and welcomed orders starting at one share. A similar pitch ran on the front page of a newspaper in Heppner, Oregon. [7] [8]

The company listed city lots, a furnace, glassworks and stock in a proposed railroad among its assets. The new line was supposed to run about 120 miles north from Tallapoosa to Stevenson, Alabama, on the Tennessee River. It promised access to timber, coal and iron, and more ways for local manufacturers to ship their goods. [2] [7] [8]

On the back of the January 1892 map, buyers could look up lots by block and number. The company asked for one-third down and the balance in one and two years at 8 percent interest. The railroad drawn on the front gave buyers a reason to imagine what a lot might be worth someday. [1]

How far did the second line get?

In June 1892, the Haralson County Superior Court appointed a receiver to take charge of the development company. Five months later, The Engineering and Mining Journal reported that the route to Stevenson had been surveyed. An English engineer named Wheatcroft had gone over it with the locating engineer and hoped to bring in British capital. [2] [9]

Lyle Frederick Bellinger, one of the surveyors credited on the sales map, was also chief engineer for the proposed railroad, according to Norwich University’s history. That ties the map buyers saw to the engineers working out where the line might go. [1] [9] [10]

By the time the trade journal reported the survey, the development company was already in court-appointed hands. Engineers were still looking for money to build the line. The original survey and construction agreement remain to be located. [2] [9]

Stand beside the tracks that came

At East Atlanta Street and Head Avenue, look at how close the downtown buildings sit to the tracks. That’s the part of the story you can see from the sidewalk. Then open the sales map and follow the second line to its proposed depot. The railroad that came changed where Tallapoosa built and traded. The one on paper shows how much more the promoters thought they could build, and how far away they went looking for people to pay for it. [1] [2]