Sparta, Georgia

Sparta, Georgia
City
Sparta Historic District
Location in Hancock County and the state of Georgia
Coordinates: 33°17′N 82°58′W / 33.283°N 82.967°W / 33.283; -82.967
Country	United States
State	Georgia
County	Hancock
Area [1]
• Total	1.82 sq mi (4.72 km2)
• Land	1.81 sq mi (4.69 km2)
• Water	0.01 sq mi (0.03 km2)
Population  (2020)
• Total	1,357
• Density	749.31/sq mi (289.27/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code	31087
Area code	706
FIPS code	13-72584[2]
GNIS feature ID	0323330[3]
Website	www.cityofsparta.org

Sparta is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Georgia, United States.^[4] The city's population was 1,357 at the 2020 census.

Sparta was founded in 1795 in the newly formed Hancock County. The town was designated county seat in 1797. It was incorporated as a town in 1805 and as a city in 1893.^[5] The community was named after Sparta, a city-state in Ancient Greece.^[6]

In 1864, during Sherman's March to the Sea, the town remained completely unscathed, reportedly due to the efforts of Confederate Captain Henry Culver, the son-in-law of local industrialist William Fraley, who successfully diverted Union troops away from the area.^[7][8]

Sparta is located at 33°17′N 82°58′W / 33.283°N 82.967°W / 33.283; -82.967 (33.2773, -82.9715).^[9] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km²), all land.

• State Route 15
• State Route 16
• State Route 22

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,357 people, 669 households, and 419 families residing in the city.

Sparta is the site of Georgia's Hancock State Prison.

The Hancock County School District holds pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of one elementary school, a middle school, and a high school.^[24] The district has 103 full-time teachers and over 1,659 students.^[25]

• Lewis Elementary School
• Hancock Central Middle School
• Hancock Central High School
• John Hancock Academy

• Thomas "Pee Wee" Butts – professional baseball player^[26]
• George Darden – United States Representative from Georgia who went to high school in Sparta
• Harvey Grant – professional basketball player
• Horace Grant – professional basketball player
• Tommy Hurricane Jackson – professional boxer
• Adella Hunt Logan – suffragist
• Jean Toomer – Harlem Renaissance writer and poet, once served as a principal in Sparta
• Angeria Paris VanMicheals – drag queen and finalist on season 14 of RuPaul's Drag Race and winner of ninth season

• Central Savannah River Area
• Rossiter-Little House - Oldest house in Sparta
• DREAM Streets Sparta Facebook page

• "History of Sparta, Georgia", Georgia Encyclopedia (John Rozier, Emory University), 12/5/2008
• Kent Anderson Leslie, Woman of Color, Daughter of Privilege: Amanda America Dickson, 1849-1893 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995).
• John Rozier, Black Boss: Political Revolution in a Georgia County (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1982).
• John Rozier, The Houses of Hancock, 1785-1865 (Decatur, Ga.: privately printed, 1996).
• John Rozier, ed., The Granite Farm Letters: The Civil War Correspondence of Edgeworth and Sallie Bird (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1988).
• Forrest Shivers, The Land Between: A History of Hancock County, Georgia, to 1940 (Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co., 1990).

• Sparta historical marker
• Sparta Cemetery historical marker
• Pierce Memorial Methodist Church historical marker