Tate, Georgia: the company town that marble built

Tate is the village in Pickens County, Georgia, that the Georgia Marble Company built around its quarries. The company provided housing, schools and recreational facilities for its workers, and a company power plant made Tate the first electrified town in the area, according to the Georgia Historical Society. You can drive through what is left of it today on GA 53. It’s about 6 road miles from Lee Newton Park in Jasper, roughly 11 minutes by our routing estimate without traffic. If you came to the Marble Festival from Dahlonega or Dawsonville, you already passed through: the Chamber’s directions send you right at the 4-way stop in Tate.

What the marker in Tate Cemetery says

The Georgia Historical Society put up its marker, “Georgia Marble Company and the Village of Tate,” in 1999. It stands in Tate Cemetery on GA 53. It says the company began in 1884 as one of many small quarrying operations in the region, and that Colonel Sam Tate became president in 1905 and served until his death in 1938. As Tate’s largest employer, the company provided housing, recreational facilities and schools for workers and their families.

• The Georgia Historical Society marker in Tate says the Georgia Marble Company began in 1884 as one of many small quarrying operations in the region. Georgia Historical Society
• Colonel Sam Tate became the company's president in 1905 and served until his death in 1938. Georgia Historical Society
• As Tate's largest employer, the Georgia Marble Company provided housing, recreational facilities and schools for workers and their families. Georgia Historical Society
• A company power plant made Tate the first electrified town in the area. Georgia Historical Society

The New Georgia Encyclopedia fills in the back story. Samuel Tate bought land-lottery tracts with big marble deposits in the 1830s. The Marietta and North Georgia Railroad reached Pickens County by 1883 and gave the quarries a way to ship stone, and with money from Northern capitalists the Tate family created the Georgia Marble Company in 1884. The Etowah quarry opened in 1890 and produced the first truly pink marble, with Stephen and William Tate on its board. By 1900, 110 men worked in the marble industry in Tate, and by 1924 the state geologist reported $1,867,000 worth of marble quarried in Pickens County. Note the order: the family founded the company, and Colonel Sam came to the presidency two decades later.

The historic district along GA 53

The Georgia Marble Company and Tate Historic District went on the National Register in 2005. Its nomination centers the district on GA 53 between GA 5 and Long Swamp Creek. Before you drive it, know a few things the nomination describes:

• The company’s main office was built in 1884 in the Mission Revival style and is clad in white marble.
• The Tate quarries yield 30 kinds of marble, including the prized Etowah pink.
• Until about 1970, steel derricks hoisted marble blocks from the quarry floor. Quarried blocks average 12 to 20 tons, and the nomination describes them lining the edges of the road.

The quarries themselves are private. Polycor places its Georgia Marble quarry in Tate and says it bought the company’s dimension-stone division from Imerys. The public gets in once a year, on the Chamber’s Marble Festival quarry tours, which Imerys and Polycor-Georgia Architectural Stone both support.

That photo is the company quarry near Tate as Cassier’s Magazine printed it in 1911. The business changed shape a good deal after that. Per the encyclopedia, the company’s Calcium Products Division, selling ground and pulverized marble, began in 1947 and became its main product by the late 1980s. The Jim Walter Corporation bought the Georgia Marble Company in 1969, later owners included IMERYS, and Polycor Inc. of Quebec City arrived in 2003. Polycor still sells Georgia marble under names like White Cherokee, Etowah, Pearl Grey, Solar Grey and White Georgia.

The depot and its model railroad

The photo at the top shows the old L&N depot in Tate. The historic Tate Depot at 5151 Hwy 53 houses the Tate Depot Train Society’s HO-scale model railroad, which the Chamber’s Visit Pickens listing says is open for public viewings and open houses. One open house was listed for October 17, 2026. The society doesn’t publish fixed hours on that listing, so check before you count on getting inside.

The gym and the marble school

The historic Tate Gymnasium is a long two-story building in shingle and lap siding, and the Tate Day Festival listing mentions Tate High School class reunions in the Old Tate Gym. Then there is Tate Elementary. The Chamber says it is “constructed entirely of Georgia marble” (Visit Pickens). That is the Chamber’s description; we have not seen a building survey that says the same.

The Tate House

Colonel Sam Tate’s mansion, built in the 1920s from Etowah pink marble, is the best-known building in town. It is privately owned and used as a wedding venue, and the public gets inside only during its Christmas Open House. We gave it its own article: the Tate House and its one public season.

Tate Day

Tate throws its own party. The Tate Day Festival listing describes a parade, a yard sale, tours of the Tate House and Tate Elementary, an entertainment stage, barbecue lunches and the class reunions in the old gym. The listing gives no date, and we won’t invent one.

Stops for a short Tate drive

These are the places with sourced details, not a turn-by-turn route. Our Tate marble trail builds an ordered day with drive times.

• Historic site

  Historical marker: Georgia Marble Company and the Village of Tate

  Georgia Historical Society marker erected in 1999, covering the company's 1884 start, Colonel Sam Tate, the company town and Tate's early electrification.

  • Tate Cemetery, on GA 53, Tate, GA

  Source: georgiahistory.com, checked Oct 18, 2026

• Historic site

  Georgia Marble Company and Tate Historic District

  The company village of Tate and the Georgia Marble Company complex (1884 marble main office; quarries yielding 30 kinds of marble including Etowah pink). The quarries are private; the public sees them only on Marble Festival quarry tours.

  • Centered on GA 53 between GA 5 and Long Swamp Creek, Tate, GA 30177

  Source: National Register (NPS), checked Oct 18, 2026

• Historic site

  Historic Tate Depot (Tate Depot Train Society)

  Historic depot housing the Tate Depot Train Society's HO-scale model railroad, open for public viewings and open houses (one was listed for Oct 17, 2026).

  • 5151 Hwy 53, Tate, GA 30177

  Source: Visit Pickens (Chamber), checked Oct 18, 2026

• Historic site

  The Tate House (Pink Marble Mansion / 'Pink Palace')

  Colonel Sam Tate's Etowah pink-marble mansion from the 1920s. Now a privately owned, adult-only wedding venue, open to the public only during its annual Christmas Open House.

  • Not open for drop-in tours. 2026 Christmas Open House tour-only: Mon-Sat 11:00am-1:30pm, tickets sold Dec 1-23, 2026. Group luncheon tours (50+) Mon-Thu 11am-2pm by booking.
  • Christmas tour-only: $25 adults, $5 children 10 & under. Christmas Lunch Tour $68 (2026).
  • 61 Marble Mansion Ln, Tate, GA 30177
  • 770-735-3122

  Source: tatehouse.com, checked Oct 18, 2026

A last bit of context for the drive: the company’s reach went beyond Tate. The Chamber says it bought John Nelson’s property on the railroad near the Cherokee County line for a finishing plant, in what is now the city of Nelson. And the stone went much farther than that, as our piece on Georgia marble in Washington sorts out.

Questions people ask

Written by the Jasper Marble Festival Guide Editorial Team. AI tools help us draft; people check every fact before it publishes.