Powder Springs’ post office opened in 1836, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
More historic than 35% of U.S. towns · #153 of 263 in Georgia. What drives it
Most of Powder Springs was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1996. Its Register listing is the Butner-Mctyre General Store. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1954 on, and the census since 1890.
Founding year: the first Powder Springs post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Powder Springs’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Powder Springs is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns, #153 of 263 in Georgia. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Powder Springs’ 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 Powder Springs’ 0.6 sits below most of its state (34% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B. The pre-1940 share (±0.3 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 Powder Springs’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The town of Powder Springs was incorporated as Springville in 1838 in the lands of two Cherokee leaders. Gold had been discovered in Georgia 10 years earlier, and the first European-American settlers came to find gold. The settlers found little gold in the mines at Lost Mountain and off Brownsville Road. It was at about this time that the Cherokee people were forced off their land and removed to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River on the Trail of Tears.
Springville was renamed Powder Springs in 1859. The name was derived from the seven springs in the city limits. The water in these springs contains some 26 minerals that turn the surrounding sand black like gunpowder – hence the earlier name of Gunpowder Springs.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Powder Springs. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1954Austell sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Powder Springs.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Powder Springs
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
The Powder Springs post office opened in 1836, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Powder Springs rank for history?
Powder Springs is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns, #153 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 Powder Springs?
One place: the Butner-Mctyre General Store (listed 2006).
How old are the homes in Powder Springs?
0.0% of Powder Springs’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1996.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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2015
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