Loganville Fall Festival
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
APRIL 30, 2019 | Those of you who do not get to drive through Loganville may be surprised should you visit there. This easternmost city of Gwinnett County is mostly located in Walton County, and in the last few years, has seen solid growth.
The town is relatively small, with an estimated 12,062 residents now, but that’s up from 5,435 in 2000 and 10,485 in 2010.
What Loganville has seen in the last few years is a boom of retail activity, mostly in Gwinnett County, while residential growth has taken place mostly in Walton County. Like the rest of Gwinnett, Loganville is diverse, still primarily white in its population (66 percent), but with a growing ethnic diversity with 22 percent black; seven percent Hispanic; and only two percent Asian.
This is the second oldest settlement in the area, dating back to 1842, when James Harvie Logan, settled the area from Tennessee purchasing 62.5 acres for $150! Logan was a farmer and shoemaker. During the next several years as other families settled in the area, the population rose to about 500 residents. Loganville was first incorporated in 1887 with its original limits extending a half mile in every direction from the town well.
Loganville got a boost in 1898 when the Loganville and Lawrenceville Railroad Company was established, giving it a direct connection to Atlanta. The line was owned by the Seaboard Airline Railroad. Local entrepreneurs built a depot for the rail company. The Depression shut the railroad down in 1932.
The Georgia Legislature amended the Loganville charter in 1905, extending the city limits eastward and the city became partially in Gwinnett.
When WalMart came to U.S. Highway 78 in Loganville, a legal matter entered the picture. It seems that the Walton-Gwinnett county lines went through the cash registers. The question came: which county would get the sales tax revenue? This was settled when Walton agreed to collect the sales tax on items sold at WalMart, while Gwinnett County would get the tax on alcoholic beverages.
Meanwhile, other big box stores, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Hobby Lobby, have located in the Gwinnett County portion, east of downtown along U.S. Highway 78, where there is considerable retail activity.
The city also now has three auto dealerships. For years, people in Metro Atlanta learned of Loganville through the Maxie Price Chevrolet late-night television car-hawking, with the ending question, “Whurs’ Loganville?” Today two more auto dealerships are in Loganville, Colonial-Buick-GMC and Loganville Ford.
Currently there are four subdivisions with building activity, with new homes averaging $172,000, city officials say. Last fall the city annexed 100 acres off Georgia Highway 81 toward the town of Youth; so far no building activity has started there.
Curry
Former Mayor Dan Curry, who acts as a goodwill ambassador for the town, talks of the town growth: “It’s good, but a lot of our folks don’t like the increased traffic. But then they’ll ask me, ‘When are we getting more good restaurants, like a Longhorn’s Steak House?’ I have to tell them that it takes the traffic they don’t like, and more of it, that it takes car counts, and rooftops, and dollars under those rooftops, to have a vibrant town. It also cost one cent more to shop in Walton County, because of their HOST tax.
He adds: “And we are a safe community, with good medical care today through the Monroe-Piedmont Hospital, a few good restaurants and good schools in both counties. It makes a well-rounded, highly respected, sought-after community.” You see why Dan Curry, though no longer the mayor, is a walking commercial for today’s modern Loganville.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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