City of Leesburg holds 150th anniversary celebration

LEESBURG, Ga. – The City of Leesburg is gearing up for a milestone celebration thus weekend. And… we got a chance to talk about the city’s 150th anniversary.

Police Chief, Christopher Prokesh took us through the history of Leesburg, from humble train depot called Wooten Station to a community on the rise.

“All of these small towns, if you follow the line going from Thomasville up to make an hour every 10 to 12 miles apart. And the reason for that is, is the trains back then were very inefficient and they had to stop to re-water for the big steam engines every 10 to 12 miles. So that’s actually where if you go from Leesburg, Smithville, Americus, Ellaville, all the way up the line every 10 to 12 miles, that’s how the cities formed were around these railroads,” said Chief Christopher Prokesh, Leesburg Police Dept.

As they look forward to the celebration, they’re incorporating a little bit of that old station into Saturday’s anniversary.

“We’re actually going to do our 150th celebration right outside the train depot, literally by the railroad tracks in in in honor of that. This is the second time that I know of that this has been done in that location,” said Chief Prokesh.

They held the centennial celebration at the old train depot back in 1974…

And… for Saturday’s downtown shutdown, they’re pulling out all the stops.

But… Chief Prokesh wanted to lay out the traffic for those interested in going Saturday.

“The roads will be shut down for everything south of Smithville Road, all around the courthouse up until where Courthouse Drive meets Highway 32 on 4th Street. So, we will have detour signs up. We will be detouring people around Smithville Road in Starksville Avenue to get back to Leslie Road,” Chief Prokesh.

And… for lifelong residents like himself, Chief Prokesh is excited to celebrate how far Leesburg has come.

“It’s exciting. And… I think a lot of the citizens are going to going to feel the same way,” Chief Prokesh.

While Saturday will celebrate 150 years, the people of Leesburg are looking forward to what comes next.

The 150th anniversary celebration will begin in downtown Leesburg Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

Brian Roche reporting.

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