A Glimpse into History

A Glimpse into History. . , Norcross was incorporated in 1870 , by John J. Thrasher, a pioneer Atlanta settler who named this town after his good friend and business associate, Jonathan Norcross. The town of Norcross was the second city in Gwinnett County, and the first to be placed on the National Registry of Historic Places., The Old Baseball Field , was home to the Norcross Nuggets, and originally sat on the site of the present-day Lillian Webb Park. Norcross is said to have produced more professional baseball players per capita than any other town in the nation-four major leaguers came out of a town with a population of perhaps 1,000 and there were a host of minor leaguers as well. , The Norx , was the first car manufactured south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and was produced right here in Norcross. It was built by a company owned by Edward Buchanan, who grew up in Norcross and went on to make it big on Wall Street in the early 1900s., The Eastern Continental Divide , runs along Thrasher Park on N. Peachtree St. It is a physical ridge that once served as the dividing line between Creek and Cherokee tribe terrorities over 200 years ago, and had a well-traveled trading path leading to the Chattahoochee River. At that time, the path was reportedly called "Pitch Tree Road," after the pitch Indians tapped from abundant local pine trees to seal their canoes. , The Old Cotton Gin , on Lawrenceville Street was once owned by the Summerour family. In the early 1900s, Homer Summerour developed and marketed a more productive variety of cotton, which he called "Half and Half." It is said that his cotton seeds made him so well-known that people from across the country could send an order addressed to nothing more than "Cotton Seed Man" and "Georgia," and it would be delivered to him here in Norcross., "Atlanta's Summer Resort" , (aka Norcross) attracted visitors in the late 1800s for a convenient "escape" from the hustle, bustle and heat of the big city, thanks to the commuter train "Airline Belle" and hotels like The Brunswick. From the hotel's front porch rockers and fresh chicken pot pie to the cool relief of the Chattahoochee and the toe-tapping tunes of Thrasher Park's Norcross Concert Band, Norcross was a true oasis away from it all - without being "away."