Downtown Cartersville
No visit to Cartersville is complete without some time spent in Historic Downtown Cartersville.
Today, the city maintains much of its early character, juxtaposed with exciting new restaurants, art galleries, and boutiques filled with items you’ll want to take home. At the center of downtown is Friendship Plaza and the Cartersville Depot Welcome Center. This is the place for sweet sounds downtown with free music, car shows, and fun events on many weekends throughout the year.
The plaza’s hallmark is Cooper’s Friendship Monument, believed to be the only monument in the world commissioned by a debtor to honor his creditors. Along the CSX railway is Cartersville’s Fence of Fame, honoring local notables for their unique contributions to society. Also included are monuments to Bartow County’s first Vietnam casualty and in remembrance of September 11, 2001. Train watching is a popular pastime at Friendship Plaza, with approximately 40 freight trains passing by daily. Passenger rail ended in Cartersville around the late 1960s.
The Booth Western Art Museum and Bartow History Museum anchor the square’s north side. To the south of Friendship Plaza is the World’s First Outdoor Painted Wall Sign for Coca-Cola. To the east is the Grand Theatre, and to the west is the Legion Theater, both of which thrive with the performing arts for which Cartersville has become well-known. Beyond downtown Cartersville’s western borders are the iconic and often-filmed 1903 Courthouse, Rose Lawn Museum, and Cartersville’s residential historic districts. In between, there are some of northwest Georgia’s best chef-owned restaurants, and 40 shops, galleries, and coffeehouses. Whether you're entertaining family and friends, taking in a Pumphouse Players’ performance, or enjoying the sounds of regional musicians, Historic Downtown Cartersville is a memorable experience not to be missed.
As you could imagine, with a Smithsonian Affiliate Museum like Booth Western Art Museum and such a vibrant cultural scene, Downtown Cartersville is also home to a wide array of public art, where visitors are encouraged to engage with free public art sculptures throughout the city center.
Cartersville, Georgia is rooted in history from the pre-historic Leake Mounds and Etowah Indian Mounds, to numerous sites recalling the valor of the Civil War. Following the dissemination of the Mississippian Mound Builders’ culture, Creek Indians inhabited the region until driven south by the Cherokees in the late 18th Century. Despite adopting a civilized lifestyle, the discovery of gold in north Georgia in 1828 numbered the Cherokees’ days here in their “Enchanted Land.”
The State of Georgia created 10 counties from Cherokee territory, one of which was Cass County. Cassville became the county seat and Cartersville sprang up just to the south along newly created rail lines and former stagecoach routes. Originally called Birmingham, the community was frequently visited by a prominent north Georgia planter and entrepreneur Col. Farrish Carter, who jokingly suggested that due to his many visits, the town should change its name to Cartersville; and the town residents did just that.
The county seat was burned in November 1864, and reconstruction was greatly impaired because Cassville’s citizens had kept the railroad from entering the pristine community. As a result Cartersville was reincorporated as the new county seat in 1872.
Historically Cartersville’s economy has been derived from the mining industry, and the community reflects this today in the red clay and iron pours at Red Top Mountain State Park, to Antebellum iron works at Cooper’s Furnace Day Use Area, and in the Weinman Mineral Gallery at Tellus Science Museum. Even the local high school’s football “mascot,” the Cartersville Hurricanes, gets its name from nearby Hurricane Hollow, an ore deposit located in Cartersville’s popular Pine Mountain Recreation Area.
Today major manufacturers such as Toyo Tire North America, Anheuser-Busch Brewery, Shaw Industries, Komatsu and Vostelpine employ thousands throughout north Georgia. Residents and visitors alike enjoy the four seasons of the north Georgia mountains, plentiful recreation areas in and around Allatoona Lake, and unique museums such as the Booth Western Art Museum and Tellus Science Museum, both honored as Smithsonian Affiliates.
Downtown Cartersville is a great destination for the town’s best restaurants, and a variety of eclectic places to shop. Two performing arts theatres anchor the historic square where the city’s 20,000+ residents gather throughout the year for festivals, farmer’s markets and more.
Come take a look around! Browse Area Attractions and remember to make hotel reservations.