From Mystic to Wiregrass
Slab Town Emerges and Tifton is Born
In 1872 Captain Henry Harding Tift left his Mystic, Connecticut
seaport city to establish a sawmill amid the lofty pine forests
of South Georgia’s Wiregrass Region. This original business
settlement was first known as “Slab Town”, for the workers’
shacks built on wooden slabs, then “Tift’s Town”, and then
“Tifton” in 1890.
The soaring pine timbers of the area were valued for tall masts
needed by the Tift family’s eastern shipbuilding enterprise.
Soon a community emerged to aid logging efforts, and newly
built railcars shipped local products to distant destinations. By
1896 47 businesses supported a growing number of farms and
prosperous logging and railroad industries.
Cattle and sheep were fed wiregrass, while fertile soil sustained
a wide variety of crops from peaches and melons to vegetables.
As cotton failed to thrive, tobacco replaced it as a cash crop
Still seen today, the area’s architectural styles mirrored the
varied roots of the citizenry and the buildings’ functions.
From the grand Hotel Myon to the Georgia Southern depot,
churches, icehouse and grocery concerns, bricks, glass, stucco,
and concrete were melded into the hub of a pulsating town.
Thus grew a gathering place for neighbors, businessmen,
farmers, and travelers.
Today’s Historic District showcases the successful
resurrection of Downtown Tifton. Emerging from a wave of
migration toward the modern Interstate, Tifton is once again
the bustling southern town it once was, proud of its history
and ready to share its exciting blend of heritage and modern
amenities with visitors from near and far.
WELCOME TO HISTORIC DOWNTOWN TIFTON!
1919 Postcard of
the Myon Hotel
Early 20th Century Photo of Main Street
The Myon Hotel was reconstructed in 1990
as the home of the City of Tifton, City Hall.
Tifton Terminal Railway Depot and Museum
1926 Postcard of Tift County Court House
Three Graces at the Lankford Manor,
built in 1892 as a residence know as the
“Pope House” and renovated as a dining
& banquet manor in 2007.
Historic Photo of the type of
locomotive used in the 1880’s
The Tifton Post Office was built in 1913
and later renovated to become the
Tfton-Tift County Public Library.
Tift Theatre,opened in 1937, was restored as a venue
for movies, plays, pageants, and concerts.