Historical

The Arrival of the Enterprise.  An excited crowd gathered to witness the 1816 arrival of the first steamboat, the Enterprise, towing a barge loaded with 3,000 bushels of salt. The bridge in the background was constructed by Henry Shultz and Lewis Cooper. The arrival of the Enterprise marked the beginning of the golden age of steamboating on the Savannah River. Shultz later lost the rights to his bridge and built up the town of Hamburg on the Carolina side of the bridge as a rival to Augusta.

Springfield Baptist Church.  Jesse Peters Galphin was a member of the first African-American Church in the United States, founded prior to the American Revolution at Silver Bluff, South Carolina. After the Revolution, Galphin led his congregation to Springfield, a village incorporated into Augusta in 1798. The church functioned under its own pastors during the antebellum years, and became a center for black progress after the Civil War. Morehouse College had its origin there, as did the State Republican Party.

The Academy of Richmond County.  The Academy is the oldest public educational institution in Georgia, growing out of a 1783 act of the Georgia legislature, and offering classes in 1785. Closed during the Civil War, the Academy opened again under the leadership of the talented Col. George W. Rains. The scene shows a typical drill under Major George P. Butler who revived the military department in 1898. Major Butler led the Academy into the Richmond County public school system in 1909, and in 1925 into Junior College status. The Junior College grew into today's Augusta State University.

The Double Eagle.  Gene Sarazen gained golf immortality by scoring a double eagle on the 15th hole in the 1935 Masters Tournament. A group headed by golfing great Bobby Jones purchased the Beckmans nursery tract in 1931 and turned it into The Augusta National Golf Course. Horton Smith won the first tournament (and a $1500 purse) in 1934. The painting shows Sarazen hitting his second shot on the par-five hole. The ball carried over the pond, landed on the green and trickled into the hole. The serenity of the situation was typical of the early years when crowds were few.

The Butt Memorial Bridge.  Augustans collected $20,000 to adorn the new High Bridge over the canal at 15th Street with memorials to honor Major Archibald W. Butt, an Augustan native, who was a military aide to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft. Major Butt died heroically on the steamer Titanic; witnesses testified to his helping women and children into lifeboats. The picture shows President Taft dedicating the bridge in Butt's honor on April 15, 1914.

The Medical College of Georgia.  Dr. Paul F. Eve (shown speaking to a class of medical students) and Drs. Milton Antony, Louis A. Dugas, Paul DeSaussure Ford, Joseph A. Eve and Ignatius Garvin formed the pioneering faculty. Founded in 1829 in the city hospital on Greene Street, the faculty moved into the classic Greek Revival building constructed by architect Charles Cluskey in 1835. In January 1913, the students moved into the renovated Orphan Asylum on 13th Street. The city constructed the University Hospital as an adjunct to the college.

The Military in Augusta.  The painting shows the allegorical march of military presence in Augusta: Fort Augusta, 1737 until 1768; Fort Cornwall, 1781; the Augusta Arsenal 1819 until 1957; Fort McKenzie during the Spanish-American War; Fort Hancock during World War I; Fort and later Camp Gordon, 1940 to the present. The marching soldiers wear uniforms from colonial times forward. The picture captures the sprit of patriotism exhibited by Augustans through successive generations.

The Cotton Exchange.  A group of leading merchants organized the Augusta Cotton Exchange in 1872. The handsome building was constructed in the Second Empire style by Augusta's most prominent builder, William Goodrich. Notice the wagon bringing in baled cotton from the "gins" in the country and the piled bales along Eighth Street waiting to be classed according to length of fiber and quality, then sent to be stored in the city's warehouses. The block came to be called "cotton row," which it is still known as today.

The Augusta Canal.  Constructed by former railroad workers and slaves in 1845, the Augusta Canal was the brainchild of Henry H. Cumming. It provided water for drinking and general commercial use, power for factories, and transportation for craft from the upper Savannah River. The canal rescued Augusta from a depression, and ushered in a period of prosperity. The scene presented in this painting shows the enlargement of the canal in 1875 during the administration of Mayor Charles Estes.

Fort Augusta.  In 1748, "Oglethorpe's Own," a company of the Forty-Second British Regiment of Foot, garrisoned the fort under the command of Captain George Cadogan and Lieutenant Richard Kent. Oglethorpe ordered the fort built in 1736, and it was completed in 1738 under the direction of Roger Lacy and Richard Kent. Commanders of the fort were responsible for controlling the Indian trade as far as the Mississippi River.

The Confederate Monument.  As Augusta promoters touted the progress of the "New South," they also commemorated the "Lost Cause." The Ladies Memorial Association erected the monument on Broad Street, and 10,000 witnessed its dedication on October 31, 1878. The statues at the base represent Generals Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Georgian Thomas R.R. Cobb, and Augustan William H. T. Walker. Berry Benson, a hero of the war, posed for the statue representing the enlisted man atop the monument. The new horse-drawn streetcar began service to the Hill in 1868.

The Signal Corps Winter Airbase at Barnes Field.  At the recommendation of Wilbur Wright, who operated a commercial flying school in Augusta, the Signal Corps selected Barnes Field on Sand Bar Ferry Road as its first winter base. The first pilots and planes arrived on November 28, 1911. Unfortunately Augusta experienced an unusual snowfall, and a flood. After the second season, the Signal Corps moved its planes to San Diego.