A high school oratory contest once held in Valdosta was notable for the
second place winner,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
President
George W. Bush received his National Guard flight training at Valdosta's
Moody Air Force Base in November 1968.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Monthly Labor Review, the
first automated teller machine (ATM) was installed at C&S Bank in Valdosta.
Valdosta was named one of 2003's "Top 100 U.S. Small Towns" by
Site Selection magazine.
In 1910,
Fortune magazine named Valdosta the richest city in America by
per capita income.
Interesting Facts Connected With Early Valdosta
The first store was owned by Thomas B. Griffin, located at Patterson and
Hill Avenue, and Pease & Sauls the second, followed by Mr. Mose Smith, who
had kept a store in Troupville.
Mr. Albert Converse II was the first white
child born in Valdosta. Dr. Thomas W. Ellis had the first drug store on
Ashley, near Hill Avenue. Dr. Ellis was the first person buried in Sunset
Hill Cemetery. Dr. William Ashley and Dr. Ellis were the first physicians in
Valdosta. Mr. R.Y. Lane was the first banker in Valdosta.
In 1861 I. H.
Tillman and C. H. M. Howell, Lowndes County delegates to Georgia's secession
convention, voted with the majority for withdrawal from the Union. In 1863
several families, refugees from the fighting in north Georgia, came to
Valdosta on the railroad and settled in the new town. Lt. Reuben T. Roberds,
who had been the first mayor of Valdosta, died at Knoxville Tennessee, as an
officer of the "Valdosta Guards" in 1863. In 1864 refugees from Liberty
County, hard hit by Sherman's march to the sea, organized what came to be
the First Presbyterian Church in Valdosta. In 1865 the first regularly
assigned full-time Methodist minister arrived in Valdosta. He was the Rev.
George Smith, a wounded and partially paralyzed Civil War veteran who sat
while preaching.
James H. Pierpoint taught music in Valdosta. He was later
to compose "Jingle Bells." In 1865 Federal troops of Company "G," 103rd U.
S. Colored Troops, were stationed in Valdosta. In 1866 Samuel McWhir
Varnedoe founded the county's first real school, the Valdosta Institute. In
1867 the South Georgia Times predecessor to the Valdosta Daily Times started
publication. In 1869 fire in the office of the Ordinary, W. H. Dasher,
destroyed the records of the county. In 1869/ 1870 two fire companies were
established in Valdosta, the Patterson Fire Company (white) and the Osceola
Hook and Ladder Company (black).
In 1875 a brick court house was built on
the Court House Block and was used until the present court house was
constructed in 1904-05. The Lowndes Volunteers, a home guard militia group,
was organized with uniforms modeled after West Point in 1875. In 1885 a
group of Episcopalians bought a lot and erected a chapel on East Central
Avenue. The town purchased the private Valdosta Institute, thereby
establishing a public school system in 1885.
In 1889 The Georgia Southern
and Florida Railroad arrived in Valdosta from the north, expanding trade and
business greatly. In 1890 the Valdosta Videttes, a voluntary military
company commanded by James O. Varnedoe, drilled on the public square between
Ashley and Lee Streets. In 1895 The Valdosta City Council authorized the
erection of poles, wiring and other equipment by the Southern Bell Telephone
and Telegraph Company and the Valdosta Telegraph Company. The Valdosta
Street Railway Company secured the right to operate street cars on Toombs,
Patterson, Ashley, Lee, Troup, Hill Central, Crane and Gordon Streets in
1898. In 1899 the Valdosta Primitive Baptist Church was organized. B. F.
Strickland incorporated a cotton mill in August of 1899, opening with 5,000
spindles and 125 looms.
Valdosta, Georgia Today
The city of Valdosta is the county seat of Lowndes County,
Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Valdosta, Georgia
Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 Census, the city had a total
population of 43,724; by the 2006 census estimate, it had grown slightly to
45,529[3] The same estimate showed a population of 126,305 in the Valdosta
metropolitan area.
It is called the Azalea City as the plant grows in profusion
there. The city hosts an annual
Azalea
Festival in March.
Located in the far southern portion of the state, near the
Florida line, it is a commercial center of South Georgia with numerous
manufacturing plants. The surrounding area produces tobacco, turpentine,
pine lumber, and pulpwood. Moody Air Force Base is located nearby.
Valdosta has a number of picturesque historic districts including the
beautifully maintained Fairview Historic District and its crown jewel the
Roberts House, the oldest home in Lowndes County.
The city has a vibrant art scene supported actively by
Valdosta State University, the Southern Artists League, the Turner Art
Center, and the Snake Nation Press.
Geography
Valdosta is located at 30°50′48″N,83°16′59″W
(30.846661, -83.283101).
It is located in the
coastal plain of Georgia and thus has a virtually flat landscape. Highways
stretch for miles with hardly a curve, rise, or fall. The 60 miles (97km) of
railway between Valdosta and Waycross was once the longest straight stretch of railroad in the world.
