Clarkesville: Historic Downtown, Craftsmanship and Nature

Discover Clarkesville through its historic town culture, craftsmanship and outdoor activities. The downtown is easy to explore on foot; it is also home to a designated historic preservation district, cultural offerings and a variety of natural features. When looking for a hotel, you can choose the focus of your stay based on whether you mainly want to stroll through downtown, learn about local history and crafts, or set aside time for trails and outdoor activities.

Historic Downtown and Local History

Clarkesville’s downtown was designated a Historical Preservation District in 2020. There you’ll find pottery studios, as well as antique, art and collectibles shops. Those interested in the town’s past can also explore the Historic Mauldin House, the Historic Habersham Theater and the Old Clarkesville Cemetery as distinct local landmarks.

The Historic Mauldin House was built around 1880 and contains artifacts and stories about local history. The house also features an authentic millinery shop with more than 200 historic hats. The Old Clarkesville Cemetery is the burial place of historically notable people, including Jarvis Van Buren and his wife, Eliza Van Buren. The Historic Habersham Theater, meanwhile, was built as a movie theater in 1937. This history sits alongside the live theater offered by Habersham Community Theatre, which serves residents and visitors in Northeast Georgia.

Crafts and Performing Arts

Classes at Made Here Studio include wet felting, needle felting, weaving, knitting and crocheting. Visitors can also learn how to make unique fiber products from alpaca fiber produced on their own farm. The range of class topics gives you a concrete sense of the textile techniques in focus. Habersham Community Theatre offers a different cultural highlight: live theater for residents and visitors in Northeast Georgia. This brings hands-on crafts and performing arts together as distinct interests.

Greenway, Parks and Natural Features

Phase I of the Clarkesville Greenway covers 19 acres and includes nearly one mile of trail; the site also features a constructed wetland. The Greenway is accessible from downtown via the East Water Street Connector. This describes the area in terms of its size, trail length, landscape feature and named access point.

Pitts Park has well-maintained trails used by walkers and runners. By comparison, the Clarkesville Greenway is also defined by its nearly one mile of trail and its wetland. You can compare the two trail options according to what matters to you: the well-maintained trails and their use at Pitts Park, or the combination of trail, open space and wetland at the Greenway.

The Soque River offers a distinct connection to fly fishing. It is popular with fly fishers looking for trophy-size brown and rainbow trout. Moccasin Creek State Park is located on Lake Burton in the Chattahoochee National Forest, giving it a different, clearly identified landscape setting. For navigating a drive, Scenic Highway 197 heads north from its starting point in historic Clarkesville.

When looking for a hotel in Clarkesville, it can help to decide on the focus of your stay first: downtown history and shops, crafts and theater, or trails and outdoor activities.

Discover more destinations: Cornelia

View the broader travel guide: Habersham County.