Education Edition - 1736 Magazine, Fall 2019

A 1912 photo shows members
of the Harlem Chamber of
Commerce. James Atkinson, who
started the Columbia Sentinel
newspaper, is pictured in the front
row, third from the left. [SPECIAL]
HARLEM HISTORY
Harlem’s roots go back to
the 1830s, when the Georgia
Railroad was built from Augusta
to Eatonton, Ga. One of the main
stops along the route was a
booming but rough-and-tumble
lumber town known as Saw
Dust.
Dr. Andrew J. Sanders, a
graduate of the Medical College
of Georgia in Augusta, moved to
the area in 1857 and began selling
land for $1 an acre to entice
more people to reside nearby.
Dr. Sanders also donated land
to build what would become
Harlem Baptist Church, Harlem
High School (now Harlem Middle
School) and Harlem Methodist
Church.
In the mid-1860s, Newnan
Hicks moved to the area after
quitting his job as a railroad
engineer after being asked to
work on a Sunday. A teetotaler,
Hicks wanted to start a town
that – unlike Saw Dust – didn’t
sell liquor. He built his home
near Dr. Sanders and helped
incorporate Harlem on Oct. 24,
1870.
They named the town based
on a suggestion from a visiting
resident of New York, who said
he thought the area resembled
Harlem, N.Y., which at the time
was a semi-rural haven for New
York City dwellers.
Saw Dust was absorbed by
the city in 1887, as was the
Cerlastae settlement in 1906.
Norvell “Oliver” Hardy, half of
the famous comedy duo Oliver
and Hardy, was born in Harlem
in 1892.
By the early 20th century,
Harlem had 500 residents and an
assortment of industry and cultural
attractions, including the
Columbia Opera House, which
was destroyed by fire in 1917.
Columbia County’s first movie
theater, the Columbia Theater,
opened in Harlem in 1949.
The town’s economy began to
wither in the 1950s and 60s as
highway improvements made
it easier for Columbia County
residents to procure goods and
services in Augusta and its suburbs.
The decline accelerated in
the 1970s and 80s as new county
residents flocked to fastergrowing
areas in the county’s
unincorporated eastern end.
In 1988 the city created the
annual Oliver Hardy Festival,
which draws tens of thousands
of visitors to town.
The city is growing once
again as suburban development
moves its way westward along
the Interstate 20 corridor, fueled
by expansions of Fort Gordon’s
cybersecurity and intelligence
operations. City officials also are
working to expand the city limits
through annexation.
The town’s population has
grown 50% since 2010, and it
expects to have close to 4,000
residents when the 2020 Census
is complete.
Source: City of Harlem, staff research
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