Heritage Walk: Henderson Avenue

Description

Historic Athens invites you to experience history where it happened, with the folks who know it best. Join us for our Heritage Walks, a series of guided tours highlighting Athens, Georgia's historic neighborhoods and places. Tour guides are local experts, leaders, historians, and artists, able to share all the behind-the-scenes history of even the most well-known, iconic places of the Classic City. Henderson Avenue is a peaceful residential enclave with stately, overhanging oaks set amidst the Milledge Avenue/Baxter Street corridors. The Henderson neighborhood consists of a very small portion of the 633-acre tract purchased by John Milledge in 1801 and given to the trustees of the University of Georgia. In 1845 William A. Carr purchased a significant parcel of this land from UGA. In 1860 a portion of the Carr property was purchased by Alfred Long Dearing. Southern Rights (or States Rights Street), the forerunner of Henderson Avenue, was then cut to divide the Dearing property from that of Carr. The earliest houses on Henderson date from this period, but the period of most significant development occurred from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries due to the streetcar which ran from Milledge Ave to downtown. The residences include examples of Folk Victorian, Queen Anne, and early 20th century Craftsman design. In addition to its designation as an Athens-Clarke County Local Historic District, Henderson Avenue is part of the Dearing Street National Historic District. Gary Bertsch is a longtime resident of Henderson Avenue and UGA faculty from 1969-2010. After serving as an undergraduate adviser in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and undergraduate director and graduate director in the political science department, he became the founding director in 1987 of the Center for International Trade and Security, a UGA-based program conducting international research, teaching, and outreach to promote economic prosperity, international peace, and security.