BARNESVILLE, Ga. — Trains first reached the Lamar County seat in 1841 during the Macon and Western Railroad’s construction of a line between Forsyth and Atlanta. The line was completed in 1846.
Previously, the Monroe Railroad, chartered on Dec. 23, 1833, laid tracks between Macon and Forsyth in the 1830s, with trains beginning operations in December 1838. Daniel Tyler purchased the railroad in 1845 and organized the Macon and Western Railroad, which in 1871 was consolidated into the Central of Georgia.
In 1856, the Thomaston and Barnesville Railroad opened between the two cities. In 1860, the line was reorganized into the Upson County Railroad and was subsequently destroyed in the Civil War. The railroad was rebuilt in the decade following the Civil War.
Starting in the 1870s, the railroad was controlled by the Central of Georgia.
The Central of Georgia built the current railroad depot in downtown Barnesville in 1912-13. Today, the building is used as an art gallery. A mural on a nearby building depicts President Franklin Delano Roosevelt riding on a car with a train in the background.