Downtown Blue Ridge, Georgia: One Mile of History and Present-day Delights

The delightfully named town has an equally appealing walking tour.

I have walked the full length of the Blue Ridge Mountains five times. I write for the magazine Blue Ridge Country. I am the author of “Hiking and Traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway.” So, I wasn’t about to pass up a chance to explore a town known as Blue Ridge, Georgia, using the easy one-mile Downtown Historic Walking Tour brochure supplied by the Fannin County Chamber & CVB (blueridgemountains.com).

In the 1890s, the town grew around mineral springs and the railroad that brought in passengers to enjoy the waters. The 1906 depot is still in use as the ticket office for the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway.

The Baugh House, now owned by the Fannin County Heritage Foundation, was built with bricks obtained from nearby Mineral Bluff in 1890. Also built in 1890, the Kinkaid House, now the elegantly restored Blue Ridge Inn B&B, retains its original hand-carved woodwork and a wraparound porch from which to watch the world go by. What was the town jail, and is now the Police Department, was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression and constructed of regionally quarried stone. As we were passing by the Tilly Building, whose second floor had been a car dealer’s showroom, I queried a couple using the same brochure we were, and got a delightful earful.

Yeah, we take these tours wherever we go! They’re great for bits of history, architecture and culture that area residents may not even know. Like this place here. It’s currently Mitzi’s on Main, but was once a Western Auto Store. I used to love wandering those stores as a kid. They had everything—car parts, phonographs, skates, transistor radios, sleeping bags, harmonicas—just everything. For years I coveted their Western Flyer bicycles—and then my parents surprised me with one for my eighth birthday!

We didn’t buy a bike, but the many interesting businesses did entice us into a couple of purchases. I bought a stuffed animal (for a niece not yet born) at Blue Ridge Antique Mall and Laurie obtained a distinctive squirrel-proof bird feeder in Blue Ridge Bird Seed Company. (Here we learned that the huge tree in the center of downtown is a 100-year old silver maple.)

I was also impressed by the wooden lamp sculptures of William B. Selby, Jr. in High Country Art. He dyes and fires the shades made of sand in his studio! I was photographing colorful bottles of Bloody Mary mixes in Chester’s Provisions when Anetta Rowly of Atlanta leaned in to say, “I come here every few months to stock up on some of those—I can’t find them anywhere else. That’s also true of items I find at Love Dogs and Cats Too in that converted gas station down the street.”

Lunch was under a massive 200-year-old oak tree at The Black Sheep and, as I write this months later, I’m still dreaming of the crab cakes Benedict and thinking how ironic it is that the best crab dish I’ve ever had was in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Walk: History & More

There’s plenty of free parking—as long as you arrive early in the morning or after the scenic railway returns from its afternoon excursion—on West Main Street that will put you pretty much in the middle of the walking tour.  Before leaving this street, stop by the 1926 Fannin County Bank Building with its Doric pilasters and block glass transom. The coffee shop that now occupies the building has kept the bank’s vault. A block away is the 1937 Fannin County Courthouse (now the Mountain Arts Center), which retains its original courtroom. Walking past the train station will bring you to East Main Street, where most of the historic buildings are located.  In addition to those mentioned in the main text, check out three of the town’s earliest structures. The 1900 Hall Building was once a clothing store and what is now Hansen’s Grill was a boarding house where you could rent a cot for the night for 50 cents. As you round the corner of the street at the Cohutta Fishing Company to return to your car, take a look at the building’s lower level. It was once the NuGrape Soda bottling plant.

Brand New

Constructed and opened in 2020, everything at the Hampton Inn Blue Ridge is bright, crisp and clean. Our room’s window overlooked the scenic railway, so we could watch the trains’ arrivals and departures. It’s less than a minute’s walk from downtown shops and restaurants, but don’t overlook the rooftop bar for an evening meal.

All Aboard!

The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway travels along the Toccoa River from Blue Ridge to the twin towns of McCaysville, Georgia, and Copperhill, Tennessee, on its four-hour excursion.  Along the way, Laurie’s sharp eye identified maidenhead fern, spiderwort and fire pinks amidst the luxuriant streamside growth. Also, be on the lookout for Sasquatch. Passengers see at least his silhouette on almost every ride. Fish tacos at Burra Burra were a nice compliment to riverside dining in McCaysville.

Find out more about Leonard’s walking and hiking adventures at habitualhiker.com.

The story above first appeared in our May / June 2022 issue.