Dixie Highway was important to Houston County

The Dixie Highway stretches from the Canadian border to Miami, and runs through the center of Perry.

At The Coffee Cup on Carroll in Perry, Ellie Loudermilk talked about its significance to Houston County in the monthly A Cup of History event.

About a dozen people attended Thursday’s talk.

The Cup of History monthly events started because the owners Gary and Jennifer Moulliet wanted more information about the building The Coffee Cup is housed in. The meeting in September focused on the road outside the restaurant, which is the Dixie Highway. The monthly talks start at 3 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month.

The highway was started in 1914. It was the first paved north-to-south highway in the United States.

“A lot of people think Highway 41 is Dixie Highway, and, in part, it is. But it is a network of highways,” Loudermilk said.

In Perry, the Dixie Highway went to either Tifton south to Valdosta or to Ocilla and then south to Waycross.

The Georgia State Highway Department was formed in 1916 and was given federal funds through the Federal Aid Road Act to build and maintain the new highway.

The idea to form a highway running north to south was the brainchild of entrepreneur Carl Fisher.

“It divided in Perry under the red light,” Loudermilk said, pointing out the window to Carroll and Ball streets.

Becaue of the highway, she said, “Perry had the reputation as a tourist town for a long time.”

Loudermilk handed out photographs of cars with tents, taken during the early 1920s when automobile road trips were just getting started, and photos and postcards of the road.

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 10:39 PM with the headline "Dixie Highway was important to Houston County ."