Cordele dates to 1888, and 4 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns · #94 of 263 in Georgia. What drives it
Most of Cordele was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978. 4 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 405 buildings between them. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1891 on, and the census since 1890.
Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1890.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Cordele’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cordele is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #94 of 263 in Georgia. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cordele’s overall grade.
Georgia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Georgia town has 10.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cordele’s 406 sits above most of its state (86% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 406 historic buildings outnumber those of 96% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.1 points). Two sources give 1888.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Cordele’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every building
Cordele, building by building, 1891–1918
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Cordele was incorporated on January 1, 1888, and named for Cordelia Hawkins, eldest daughter of Colonel Samuel Hawkins, the president of the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway.
In November 1864, the area that is now Cordele served as the temporary capital of Georgia. During the last days of the Confederacy, Georgia's war governor Joseph E. Brown used his rural farmhouse to escape Sherman's March to the Sea. During that time, the farmhouse, which Brown called "Dooly County Place," served as the official capital for only a few days. It was replaced in 1890 by the Suwanee Hotel, located in what became downtown Cordele. The hotel was destroyed by a fire in late 1994 and was rebuilt.
Penia is a little village of 100 inhabitants (originally called ‘‘PINIA,” relating to the many pine trees there) in the extreme eastern portion of Crisp County, five miles due East of Cordele and on the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, running from Montgomery to Savannah. In this vicinity, which was a part of Dooly County in the early eighties, some of the first and prominent settlers were J. H. Dorough, F. K. Wright, W. H. Wright and T. A. Mussel-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Bay springs school is located twelve miles southeast of Cordele. Both school and the church are named from the springs located among the bay trees. The present Bay Springs school house, however, has been moved a mile, and is now located at the intersection of the Cordele, Irwinville, Arabi and Hatley public roads. It has three teachers, with 125 pupils enrolled.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Cordele, 1888 to 1993
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
In 1888, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Cordele’s post office opened in 1890, and the census of 1890 counted 1,578 people here.
How does Cordele rank for history?
Cordele is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #94 of 263 in Georgia. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Cordele?
4 listings: 1 building, among them the US Post Office-Cordele (listed 1984, the first), and 3 historic districts, the Cordele Commercial Historic District, the Gillespie-Selden Historic District and the O'Neal School Neighborhood Historic District, with 405 contributing buildings. 406 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Cordele?
5% of Cordele’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.1 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1978.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (28), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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