Carrollton, Georgia
Encyclopedia
Carrollton is a city in West Georgia
, United States
, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains
. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,388. The city is the county seat
of Carroll County
.
Historically, Carrollton has been a commercial and cultural center for Carroll and neighboring Georgia and Alabama
counties, and is the home of the University of West Georgia
.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 20.7 square miles (53.6 km²), of which 20.2 square miles (52.3 km²) is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km²) (2.51%) is water.
, of which Carrollton is the county seat, was chartered in 1826, and was governed at the time by the Carroll Inferior Court, which consisted of five elected justices. In 1829, the justices voted to move the county seat from the site it occupied near the present community of Sandhill, to a new site about eight miles to the southwest.
The original intention was to call the new county seat Troupville, in honor of former governor George Troup
, but Troup was not popular with the state government of the time, so the Georgia General Assembly
incorporated the town as Carrollton, in December 1829. The name was in honor of Charles Carroll of Carrollton
the last living signer of the United States Declaration of Independence
.
In 1830, the town was surveyed and lots were laid out, with the central feature being the town square, which was later named Adamson Square, for local judge and congressman William C. Adamson
.
Although it was the county seat and the main market town for most of Carroll County, transportation of both goods and passengers was difficult until the coming of the railroad in 1874, so Carrollton remained largely a frontier town until well after the American Civil War
.
The coming of the railroad brought new prosperity to Carrollton. Farmers were able to bring their crops, mostly cotton
, to town for shipment to distant markets, and obtain the fertilizers and agricultural supplies they needed. At the same time, consumer goods were more readily available than ever before.
The railroad also encouraged the growth of the fledgling industrial ventures, especially in the textile
industry, in and around Carrollton. These early textile mills, mostly water powered
, served as the basis for a textile industry that helped ensure the town’s prosperity well into the 20th century.
At the start of the 20th century, Carrollton boasted running water, had electric lighting and telephone service, and the town began paving its streets in 1918.
In 1906, Carrollton was chosen as the site of the Fourth District Agricultural and Mechanical School, which became West Georgia College in 1934, and is now a ten-thousand student university, the University of West Georgia
. In May 1964 Robert F. Kennedy
visited Carrollton for the dedication of Kennedy Chapel on the campus of the University of West Georgia
.
Carrollton remained an agricultural and textile manufacturing center throughout the first half of the 20th century, but as the local production of cotton declined and the population became more urban, other industries began to take on a greater prominence. Most notable is the Southwire Company. Founded in Carrollton in 1950, Southwire is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wire and cable and is the largest privately owned wire manufacturer, with more than 1,500 local employees, and 5,000 employees worldwide.
This diversification of industry has continued into the 21st century, aided in part by Carrollton’s ready access to Interstate 20
and the Norfolk Southern Railway
. The town’s major employers presently include companies in the airline, construction, power distribution, poultry, software, home entertainment, and health care industries, among others.
Carrollton also remains an important market town, with a wide variety of national retail chains and restaurants
, serving Carroll and neighboring Georgia and Alabama counties.
Carrollton featured in the 1983 TV movie Murder In Coweta County, although the Carrollton scenes were not actually filmed there. The town was also mentioned in Margaret Mitchell
’s 1936 novel Gone with the Wind
, and in the 1939 movie
of the same name. In 1946, artist Norman Rockwell
visited the Oak Mountain school, near Carrollton, to paint a rural schoolhouse for an article that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post
in November of that year. Several movies have been filmed in the Carrollton area including Conjurer
with John Schneider
, The Way Home with Dean Cain
, and Between Love and a Hard Place with Bern Nadette Stanis
. Carrollton was the home of actress Susan Hayward
.
The city attracted news media attention amidst allegations of censorship in September 2011 when the mayor overruled the board of the city-owned Carrollton Cultural Arts Center in order to ban as "very offensive" the live stage musical The Rocky Horror Show
that had been scheduled for a run just prior to Halloween. The theater board had authorized use of the venue and appropriated $2,500 for the show, which was already in rehearsal. News reports attributed the mayor's decision to his being shown by the city manager a video of the rehearsal posted by a cast member to a personal Facebook
page.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Month !! Avg High !! Avg Low !! Avg Precip !! Record High !! Record Low
|-
| Jan || 52 || 29 || 5.53 || 81 (1949) || -9 (1985)
|-
| Feb || 57 || 31 || 5.07 || 80 (1962) || 3 (1958)
|-
| Mar || 65 || 38 || 6.22 || 93 (1955) || 9 (1993)
|-
| Apr || 72 || 44 || 4.38 || 92 (1965) || 24 (1987)
|-
| May || 79 || 53 || 4.16 || 96 (1962) || 30 (1984)
|-
| Jun || 85 || 61 || 3.86 || 100 (1985) || 36 (1974)
|-
| Jul || 88 || 66 || 4.53 || 103 (1980) || 47 (1999)
|-
| Aug || 87 || 65 || 3.70 || 102 (1983) || 48 (1968)
|-
| Sep || 82 || 59 || 3.21 || 100 (1954) || 32 (1967)
|-
| Oct || 73 || 46 || 3.36 || 97 (1954) || 23 (1954)
|-
| Nov || 64 || 38 || 4.55 || 86 (1974) || 2 (1950)
|-
| Dec || 55 || 31 || 4.44 || 81 (1971) || 0 (1962)
|}
Average snowfall : 2 inches
was reported. On Christmas Day 2010 Carrollton had its first white Christmas
in 17 years. Thunderstorm
s, a few of them severe, can occur during the spring and summer months. The main risk from these storms comes from lightning
strikes. Any tornado
es produced by these storms tend to be small and highly localized. An EF3 tornado hit an area about 10 miles west of Carrollton on February 26, 2008. Some of the same areas hit by the February 2008 tornadoes were also hit by the Mother's Day Tornadoes on May 11, 2008. The Mother's Day Tornadoes did extensive damage to many homes and businesses.
Possibly the most significant severe weather risk comes from hurricanes that strike the Florida Panhandle
. These storms track northward through Alabama as tropical storms, and some have brought high winds, heavy rainfall, and the occasional tornado to the Carrollton area, resulting in significant property damage. In October 1995 Hurricane Opal
slammed the Florida panhandle then moved north into Alabama and then northeast into Georgia. The Carrollton area was hit with tropical storm force winds killing 1 person when a tree came down into a mobile home. Some area residents were without electricity for almost 2 weeks. In 2005 a feeder band from Hurricane Katrina
produced a tornado that killed 1 person just south of Carrollton. Flooding is also a concern for the area. In September 2009 up to a foot of rain fell in some areas, flooding many homes, washing away roads and bridges, and claiming the lives of ten people in Georgia.
|-
! Total Population (2000)
! White
! African
American
! American
Indian
! Asian
! Pacific
Islander
! Other
! Mixed
! Hispanic
(any race)
|-
| 19,843
| 62.49%
| 31.16%
| 0.22%
| 1.26%
| 0.01%
| 2.88%
| 1.98%
| 5.64%
|-
|}
|-
! Total households (2000)
! Family households
! Nonfamily households
! Households w/members
under 18
! Households w/members
over 65
! Avg. household size
! Avg. family size
|-
| 7,121
| 3,968
| 3,153
| 2,178
| 1,496
| 2.37
| 3.01
|-
|}
Source: US Census
|-
! Male
! Female
! Median age
! Under 21
! 21-65
! 65 and over
! 85 and over
|-
| 9,241
| 10,602
| 26.3
| 6,986
| 10,617
| 2,240
| 389
|-
|}
|-
! Median household income
! Median family income
! Median earnings (male)
! Median earnings (female)
! Per capita income
|-
| 27,559
| 39,143
| 30,600
| 23,224
| 16,803
|-
|}
Another outdoor area near Carrollton is Historic Banning Mills in Whitesburg, GA. Once a thriving mill community, the location is now a resort, retreat, and conservation center.
Carrollton is the birthplace of Baptist pastor Jerry Vines
.
holds grades pre-school to grade twelve and consists of eleven elementary schools, six middle schools, and seven high schools. The district has 805 full-time teachers and over 13,403 students.
holds grades pre-school to grade twelve and consists of one elementary school, two middle schools, a high school, and an alternative school. The district has 208 full-time teachers and over 3,682 students.
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,388. The city is the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Carroll County
Carroll County, Georgia
Carroll County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 87,268. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 111,954...
.
Historically, Carrollton has been a commercial and cultural center for Carroll and neighboring Georgia and Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
counties, and is the home of the University of West Georgia
University of West Georgia
The University of West Georgia is a comprehensive doctoral-granting university in Carrollton, Georgia, approximately 45 miles west of Atlanta, Georgia. The University is built on 645 acres including a recent land gift of 246 acres from the city of Carrollton in 2003...
.
Geography
Carrollton is located at 33°34′51"N 85°4′36"W (33.580912, -85.076704).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 20.7 square miles (53.6 km²), of which 20.2 square miles (52.3 km²) is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km²) (2.51%) is water.
History
Carroll CountyCarroll County, Georgia
Carroll County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 87,268. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 111,954...
, of which Carrollton is the county seat, was chartered in 1826, and was governed at the time by the Carroll Inferior Court, which consisted of five elected justices. In 1829, the justices voted to move the county seat from the site it occupied near the present community of Sandhill, to a new site about eight miles to the southwest.
The original intention was to call the new county seat Troupville, in honor of former governor George Troup
George Troup
George Michael Troup was an American politician from the U.S. state of Georgia. He served in the Georgia General Assembly, U.S. House of Representatives, and Senate before becoming the 32nd Governor of Georgia for two terms and then returning to the Senate...
, but Troup was not popular with the state government of the time, so the Georgia General Assembly
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, being composed of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate....
incorporated the town as Carrollton, in December 1829. The name was in honor of Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a wealthy Maryland planter and an early advocate of independence from Great Britain. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and later as United States Senator for Maryland...
the last living signer of the United States Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
.
In 1830, the town was surveyed and lots were laid out, with the central feature being the town square, which was later named Adamson Square, for local judge and congressman William C. Adamson
William C. Adamson
William Charles Adamson was a U.S. Representative from Georgia.Born in Bowdon, Georgia, Adamson attended the common schools.He was graduated from Bowdon College in 1874.He studied law....
.
Although it was the county seat and the main market town for most of Carroll County, transportation of both goods and passengers was difficult until the coming of the railroad in 1874, so Carrollton remained largely a frontier town until well after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
The coming of the railroad brought new prosperity to Carrollton. Farmers were able to bring their crops, mostly cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
, to town for shipment to distant markets, and obtain the fertilizers and agricultural supplies they needed. At the same time, consumer goods were more readily available than ever before.
The railroad also encouraged the growth of the fledgling industrial ventures, especially in the textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
industry, in and around Carrollton. These early textile mills, mostly water powered
Hydropower
Hydropower, hydraulic power, hydrokinetic power or water power is power that is derived from the force or energy of falling water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. Since ancient times, hydropower has been used for irrigation and the operation of various mechanical devices, such as...
, served as the basis for a textile industry that helped ensure the town’s prosperity well into the 20th century.
At the start of the 20th century, Carrollton boasted running water, had electric lighting and telephone service, and the town began paving its streets in 1918.
In 1906, Carrollton was chosen as the site of the Fourth District Agricultural and Mechanical School, which became West Georgia College in 1934, and is now a ten-thousand student university, the University of West Georgia
University of West Georgia
The University of West Georgia is a comprehensive doctoral-granting university in Carrollton, Georgia, approximately 45 miles west of Atlanta, Georgia. The University is built on 645 acres including a recent land gift of 246 acres from the city of Carrollton in 2003...
. In May 1964 Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
visited Carrollton for the dedication of Kennedy Chapel on the campus of the University of West Georgia
University of West Georgia
The University of West Georgia is a comprehensive doctoral-granting university in Carrollton, Georgia, approximately 45 miles west of Atlanta, Georgia. The University is built on 645 acres including a recent land gift of 246 acres from the city of Carrollton in 2003...
.
Carrollton remained an agricultural and textile manufacturing center throughout the first half of the 20th century, but as the local production of cotton declined and the population became more urban, other industries began to take on a greater prominence. Most notable is the Southwire Company. Founded in Carrollton in 1950, Southwire is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wire and cable and is the largest privately owned wire manufacturer, with more than 1,500 local employees, and 5,000 employees worldwide.
This diversification of industry has continued into the 21st century, aided in part by Carrollton’s ready access to Interstate 20
Interstate 20
Interstate 20 is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I‑20 runs 1,535 miles from near Kent, Texas, at Interstate 10 to Florence, South Carolina, at Interstate 95...
and the Norfolk Southern Railway
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, Canada...
. The town’s major employers presently include companies in the airline, construction, power distribution, poultry, software, home entertainment, and health care industries, among others.
Carrollton also remains an important market town, with a wide variety of national retail chains and restaurants
Chain store
Chain stores are retail outlets that share a brand and central management, and usually have standardized business methods and practices. These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. In retail, dining and many service categories, chain businesses...
, serving Carroll and neighboring Georgia and Alabama counties.
Carrollton featured in the 1983 TV movie Murder In Coweta County, although the Carrollton scenes were not actually filmed there. The town was also mentioned in Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was an American author and journalist. Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937 for her epic American Civil War era novel, Gone with the Wind, which was the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime.-Family:Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta,...
’s 1936 novel Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
, and in the 1939 movie
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
of the same name. In 1946, artist Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
visited the Oak Mountain school, near Carrollton, to paint a rural schoolhouse for an article that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
in November of that year. Several movies have been filmed in the Carrollton area including Conjurer
Conjurer (film)
Conjurer is a 2008 supernatural horror film directed by Clint Hutchison and written by Hutchison and David Yarbrough.-Plot:Photographer Shawn Burnett and his wife, Helen move to the country to start a new life after their child's death...
with John Schneider
John Schneider
John Schneider is the name of:*John Schneider , American football player*John Schneider , Seattle Seahawks executive...
, The Way Home with Dean Cain
Dean Cain
Dean Cain is an American actor. He is most widely known for his role as Clark Kent/Superman in the popular American television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.-Early life:...
, and Between Love and a Hard Place with Bern Nadette Stanis
Bern Nadette Stanis
Bern Nadette Stanis is an American actress best known for her role as the strong-willed Thelma Evans on the CBS sitcom, Good Times.-Career:...
. Carrollton was the home of actress Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...
.
The city attracted news media attention amidst allegations of censorship in September 2011 when the mayor overruled the board of the city-owned Carrollton Cultural Arts Center in order to ban as "very offensive" the live stage musical The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
that had been scheduled for a run just prior to Halloween. The theater board had authorized use of the venue and appropriated $2,500 for the show, which was already in rehearsal. News reports attributed the mayor's decision to his being shown by the city manager a video of the rehearsal posted by a cast member to a personal Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page.
Climate and weather
{| class="wikitable"{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Month !! Avg High !! Avg Low !! Avg Precip !! Record High !! Record Low
|-
| Jan || 52 || 29 || 5.53 || 81 (1949) || -9 (1985)
|-
| Feb || 57 || 31 || 5.07 || 80 (1962) || 3 (1958)
|-
| Mar || 65 || 38 || 6.22 || 93 (1955) || 9 (1993)
|-
| Apr || 72 || 44 || 4.38 || 92 (1965) || 24 (1987)
|-
| May || 79 || 53 || 4.16 || 96 (1962) || 30 (1984)
|-
| Jun || 85 || 61 || 3.86 || 100 (1985) || 36 (1974)
|-
| Jul || 88 || 66 || 4.53 || 103 (1980) || 47 (1999)
|-
| Aug || 87 || 65 || 3.70 || 102 (1983) || 48 (1968)
|-
| Sep || 82 || 59 || 3.21 || 100 (1954) || 32 (1967)
|-
| Oct || 73 || 46 || 3.36 || 97 (1954) || 23 (1954)
|-
| Nov || 64 || 38 || 4.55 || 86 (1974) || 2 (1950)
|-
| Dec || 55 || 31 || 4.44 || 81 (1971) || 0 (1962)
|}
Average snowfall : 2 inches
Severe weather
Severe winter conditions are infrequent. The biggest snow was in March 1993 during the 1993 Storm of the Century with 8-10". During the storm thundersnowThundersnow
Thundersnow, also known as a winter thunderstorm or a thunder snowstorm, is a relatively rare kind of thunderstorm with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain. It typically falls in regions of strong upward motion within the cold sector of an extratropical cyclone...
was reported. On Christmas Day 2010 Carrollton had its first white Christmas
White Christmas
A white Christmas refers to the presence of snow on Christmas Day. This phenomenon is most common in the northern countries of the Northern Hemisphere...
in 17 years. Thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...
s, a few of them severe, can occur during the spring and summer months. The main risk from these storms comes from lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
strikes. Any tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
es produced by these storms tend to be small and highly localized. An EF3 tornado hit an area about 10 miles west of Carrollton on February 26, 2008. Some of the same areas hit by the February 2008 tornadoes were also hit by the Mother's Day Tornadoes on May 11, 2008. The Mother's Day Tornadoes did extensive damage to many homes and businesses.
Possibly the most significant severe weather risk comes from hurricanes that strike the Florida Panhandle
Florida Panhandle
The Florida Panhandle, an informal, unofficial term for the northwestern part of Florida, is a strip of land roughly 200 miles long and 50 to 100 miles wide , lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia also on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is...
. These storms track northward through Alabama as tropical storms, and some have brought high winds, heavy rainfall, and the occasional tornado to the Carrollton area, resulting in significant property damage. In October 1995 Hurricane Opal
Hurricane Opal
Hurricane Opal was a Category 4 hurricane that formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1995.Opal was the ninth hurricane and the strongest of the abnormally active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season...
slammed the Florida panhandle then moved north into Alabama and then northeast into Georgia. The Carrollton area was hit with tropical storm force winds killing 1 person when a tree came down into a mobile home. Some area residents were without electricity for almost 2 weeks. In 2005 a feeder band from Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
produced a tornado that killed 1 person just south of Carrollton. Flooding is also a concern for the area. In September 2009 up to a foot of rain fell in some areas, flooding many homes, washing away roads and bridges, and claiming the lives of ten people in Georgia.
Demographics
Population
{| class="wikitable"|-
! Total Population (2000)
! White
! African
American
! American
Indian
! Asian
! Pacific
Islander
! Other
! Mixed
! Hispanic
(any race)
|-
| 19,843
| 62.49%
| 31.16%
| 0.22%
| 1.26%
| 0.01%
| 2.88%
| 1.98%
| 5.64%
|-
|}
Household sata
{| class="wikitable"|-
! Total households (2000)
! Family households
! Nonfamily households
! Households w/members
under 18
! Households w/members
over 65
! Avg. household size
! Avg. family size
|-
| 7,121
| 3,968
| 3,153
| 2,178
| 1,496
| 2.37
| 3.01
|-
|}
Source: US Census
Population Sex and Age
{| class="wikitable"|-
! Male
! Female
! Median age
! Under 21
! 21-65
! 65 and over
! 85 and over
|-
| 9,241
| 10,602
| 26.3
| 6,986
| 10,617
| 2,240
| 389
|-
|}
Income
{| class="wikitable"|-
! Median household income
! Median family income
! Median earnings (male)
! Median earnings (female)
! Per capita income
|-
| 27,559
| 39,143
| 30,600
| 23,224
| 16,803
|-
|}
Parks and recreation
For outdoor recreation, several parks are located near Carrollton. John Tanner State Park has a lake with a beach and swimming area, walking or running track, and camp grounds. Another local park is McIntosh Reserve, a county-run park along the Chattahoochee River. McIntosh Reserve is named for local historic figure William McIntosh.Another outdoor area near Carrollton is Historic Banning Mills in Whitesburg, GA. Once a thriving mill community, the location is now a resort, retreat, and conservation center.
Culture
Carrollton has a downtown area named Adamson Square after Congressman William Charles Adamson. Local restaurants include the Corner Cafe, The Alley Cat, Empire Grill, Plates, and Gallery Row Coffee Shop; all are within walking distance of one another. Of these, The Alley Cat and Uncorked at Plates frequently schedule bands and other events. Adamson Square is the host to many of Carrollton's events, such as the annual Mayfest which takes place in the first week of May. Another shop located on Adamson Square is Horton's Books & Gifts, certified as the oldest bookstore in Georgia by the American Booksellers Association. Founded in 1892, it is also Carrollton and Carroll County's oldest business. Right off the Square is the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center, the site of Mecca Fest, an Arts and Crafts Festival held in October.Carrollton is the birthplace of Baptist pastor Jerry Vines
Jerry Vines
Charles Jerry Vines is an American preacher and former pastor of the then nation's third largest Southern Baptist church, the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida. Like his former co-pastor Homer G...
.
Carroll County School District
The Carroll County School DistrictCarroll County School District (Georgia)
The Carroll County School District is a public school district in Carroll County, Georgia, USA, based in Carrollton, Georgia. It serves the communities of Bowdon, Bremen, Mount Zion, Roopville, Temple, Villa Rica, and Whitesburg, Georgia.-Schools:...
holds grades pre-school to grade twelve and consists of eleven elementary schools, six middle schools, and seven high schools. The district has 805 full-time teachers and over 13,403 students.
Carrollton City schools
The Carrollton City School DistrictCarrollton City School District
The Carrollton City School District is a public school district in Carroll County, Georgia, USA, based in Carrollton, Georgia. It serves the city of Carrollton, Georgia.-Schools:...
holds grades pre-school to grade twelve and consists of one elementary school, two middle schools, a high school, and an alternative school. The district has 208 full-time teachers and over 3,682 students.
Higher education
- West Georgia Technical CollegeWest Georgia Technical CollegeWest Georgia Technical College is a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia providing education for a seven-county service area that includes Carroll, Coweta, Douglas, Haralson, Heard, Meriwether, and Troup...
- Carroll Campus - University of West GeorgiaUniversity of West GeorgiaThe University of West Georgia is a comprehensive doctoral-granting university in Carrollton, Georgia, approximately 45 miles west of Atlanta, Georgia. The University is built on 645 acres including a recent land gift of 246 acres from the city of Carrollton in 2003...
- Main Campus