Reese Library Special Collections: Georgia Railroad Bank: Home

History of the Georgia Railroad Bank

The company that began as Georgia Railroad Bank has been a major financial institution in Augusta since the early 1880s.

The Georgia Railroad Bank and Trust Company in Augusta, pictured circa 1903, was established in Athens in 1833 as the Georgia Railroad Company. Two years later the company began its banking operations, and in 1840 it moved its headquarters to Augusta.The Georgia Railroad Company was chartered to a group of Athens businessmen in 1833 for the purpose of building a railroad from Augusta west into the interior of the state to extend the line that already existed between Charleston, South Carolina, and Augusta. In 1835 the charter was amended to allow banking operations, and the name was changed to Georgia Railroad and Banking Company. The bank had a capital stock of $2 million and issued its own paper money.
Company headquarters moved from Athens to Augusta in 1840. The Georgia Railroad was completed
to Marthasville (later Atlanta) in 1845. That same year the bank branch of the company helped to finance a canal system in Augusta that brought water-powered industry to the city and fostered its manufacturing rebirth. 
Text by Mr. Russell B. Brown for the New Georgia Encyclopedia
 
History of the Digitization Project
 
Logo for the Athens Historical Society, Athens, Georgia, featuring stylized architectural column

This was material was digitized with a generous donation from the Athens Historical Society of Athens Georgia.  It is the intent of the Augusta University Libraries, and the Athens Historical Society for this project to aid researchers and scholars in the study of Georgia History.

Augusta University Libraries is presently working to make this material available through the Digital Library of Georgia.  We look forward to letting the public know when this stage of the project is accomplished.

For more information about this collection please use the collection's finding aid, which you can access by clicking the "View the Full Collection" bar to the right. Please use the appropriate link depending on whether you are accessing the collection on or off campus.

 

Black and white photo of the terminal building of the Georgia Railroad in Augusta, Georgia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loose Photograph Collection, Reese Library Special Collection, Augusta University.