Beginnings

The City of North Augusta was commissioned in 1906, but construction of the industrial area began earlier, in the 1890s. Factories and commercial properties were located in the bottomlands, while residential areas lined the hills overlooking the Savannah River Valley. In this location the intersection of Georgia and Railroad Avenues was situated. The Georgia Avenue–Railroad Avenue area formed the heart of North Augusta’s industrial area in its earliest years.

The Dispensary

Among the buildings located here was the North Augusta Dispensary, the only place to purchase liquor legally between 1907 and Prohibition. The building burned in 1995. On the south side of Georgia Avenue stood the South Carolina Pottery, a coal and wood distributor, among others. On the north side of Georgia Avenue was another pottery, the Wood Pottery, and a veneer factory. Later businesses which operated in the same location included a grocery, a furniture factory, a photography shop, a blacksmith, several brick manufacturers, and one of the first independent oil companies in the South. A cotton warehouse and a lumber company operated on the east side of Railroad Avenue.

Flooding

Early businesses in North Augusta, located close to the dispensary in the old industrial district. (Image courtesy Charles E. Petty)

By the late 1920s, flooding along this lower terrace of the Savannah was becoming so common that many industrial operations began to suffer.

DID YOU KNOW?
The flood of 1925 destroyed much of North Augusta’s riverfront property. The commercial district along the river never recovered. The floods only worsened in the upcoming years.

The expense of rebuilding was too costly, and those businesses that did not fail eventually moved to the upper end of Georgia Avenue, where the heart of North Augusta is today.