Albany District Pecan Growers' Exchange, Albany Georgia
Pecan farming was introduced in southwest Georgia in the 1880s, and by 1905, several thousand trees were in cultivation there. Georgia quickly became the leading producer of pecans in the country, with much of the business centered around the Albany area. By the 1920s, with the decline of cotton production caused by the boll weevil, pecans had become the area's leading cash crop.
Early in the 1900s, growers began to band together in mutual interest and marketing organizations. In 1914, a joint committee from two of these groups presented a report recommending the advisability of organizing a cooperative marketing association that would stabilize prices, facilitate shipping, and promote the sale of pecans nationwide. One year earlier, in 1913, the Albany District Pecan Growers' Exchange had been chartered; this was followed in 1915 by the more ambitious National Pecan Growers' Exchange. Their purpose, the buying, grading, shelling, and selling of nuts, was identical. The organizations, which shared staff and facilities, began marketing in 1918 and by 1922 were in need of a new plant to handle over a half-million pecans annually. The Roosevelt Street (then North Street) property with its existing ca. 1902 warehouse and rail spur was purchased at that time, and a new, two-story office, storage, shelling and bleaching facility was constructed on the site. Grading and shipping were handled at the warehouse with its adjacent rail spur. The Albany District Pecan Growers' Exchange grew to become one of the largest, best-equipped, paper-shell pecan handling and bleaching plants in the country. It had much to do with making the area around Albany the most successful pecan-growing center in the Southeast. The Exchange prospered into the 1930s when the second warehouse (1932) was built. In the 1940s, a serious drop in nut production caused by disease to the trees resulted in the failure of the cooperative.
Building Description
The Albany District Pecan Growers' Exchange consists of a group of three buildings located at the corner of Roosevelt and Washington Streets to the north of Albany's downtown. At the west end of the complex, facing on Roosevelt Street, is a two-story brick commercial building built in 1922 as the headquarters of the Albany District Pecan Growers' Exchange. It is a load-bearing structure finished with red face brick on its front facade and common brick elsewhere. A minimum of brick detailing on its rather streamlined front facade includes wide, shallow piers dividing the building into three bays, a row of soldier bricks at the first-floor window-sill level, which continues around the side of the building, decorative brickwork in the spandrels and above the central entrance, and a barely defined cornice/parapet. The roof is flat, and the windows are large nine-over-nine double-hung sash with roll-down metal shutters on the exterior.
A concrete loading dock extends across the rear. The interior contains a basement with concrete floor and ceiling used for cold storage, and two open floors supported by wooden columns used for shelling and bleaching the pecans. Offices are located on the first floor in the southeast and northwest corners. To the east of this building and connected to it by a covered platform is a ca. 1902 brick warehouse that was purchased by the Pecan Exchange in 1922 for use as its grading and shipping facility. This one-story-with-loft, late-Victorian-style building has segmental window and door openings and a gable roof that is masked at both ends by a high parapet. A concrete loading dock (a replacement) runs parallel to the railroad siding along the building's south side and is protected by the deep bracketed overhang of the gable roof. Doors on the north side of this building lead directly into a second brick warehouse with a hipped roof, built by the Pecan Exchange in 1932. The functional facade of this building, which fronts on Washington Street, repeats the segmental window and door openings of the earlier warehouse and ties in with the facades of the two unrelated commercial buildings to its north. Both warehouses have concrete floors (that in the ca. 1902 building is probably a replacement) and exposed brick walls.
Sidewalks flank the south and east sides of the complex. Two shade trees in front of the 1922 building provide the only landscaping. A modern office building is located to the west along Roosevelt Street. To the north are commercial buildings and some modest historic housing. To the east, at the end of Roosevelt Street, are Albany's historic railyards and depots. To the south, across Roosevelt Street, is the remains of a historic commercial area associated with the railroad center.
South (front) and west sides of Exchange complex (red brick buildings), 1902 warehouse (with loading dock) in foreground looking northwest (1983)
West side of Exchange complex along Washington Street, 1902 warehouse on left, 1932 warehouse on right looking west (1983)
South side of 1902 warehouse with 1922 building in background looking northwest (1983)
Rear (north side) of Exchange complex with 1922 building on right looking south (1983)
South (front) side of complex, 1922 headquarters building in foreground looking northeast (1983)
West side of 1922 Building looking northeast (1983)
First-floor interior of 1922 building looking northwest (1983)
First-floor office area in 1922 building looking northeast (1983)
Second-floor interior of 1922 building looking northwest (1983)
