


Route 301 and Georgia State Route 21 are the main routes through the city. Sylvania calls itself the "Azalea and Dogwood City" and the "Welcome Station City." Geography Sherman's army moved through the area during the Civil War. The mural is now on permanent loan from the federal government and is held by Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. It was found in a closet of the post office in 1995 and restored. In the 1980s, complaints from the local NAACP chapter resulted in the removal of the mural. The scene depicted was of a farming family and their African American farm hand. In 1941, Caroline Speare Rohland painted a mural for the post office of Sylvania. Īs part of the projects of the Works Progress Administration, federally commissioned murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, of the Treasury Department. The county seat was moved from Jacksonborough to Sylvania in 1847. By 1830 the county was filled with people. Planters imported many enslaved African Americans to cultivate the crops. Cotton was the most important commodity crop until late in the 19th century. Sylvania was part of the Black Belt of Georgia, developed for cultivation after the cotton gin made it easier to handle short-fiber cotton. The word "Sylvania" comes from the Latin word sylvan or sylva which means "forest land" or "place in the woods." The town of Sylvania was founded in 1790 by settlers migrating to the area after the American Revolutionary War. By the time of European encounter, it was occupied by the Yuchi peoples, but some Creeks, the Uchee's allies, moved into the area during Colonial times. The area was inhabited for thousands of years by various cultures of indigenous peoples.
