Page 46 - DeKalb Bicentennial Flipbook

Granite from Lithonia quarries has been used for street curbing
and signs (left) from metro Atlanta throughout the U.S. In the
shallow pools of the monadnocks at Arabia Mountain National
Heritage Area, a rare plant in the springtime, diamorpha smallii
(right), turns crimson red before ushering forth white flowers.

CITY OF LITHONIA

FOUNDED 1856
Mayor Shameka S. Reynolds

The “City of Granite” traces its beginnings to a small crossroads settlement of farmers.
There were about 100 residents at the intersections connecting Decatur and Augusta, and
Lawrenceville and McDonough by the coming of the Atlanta Augusta Railroad in 1845.

he railroad allowed the granite quarrying Mountain are part of a contiguous field of granite that spreads
industry in the area to flourish. Johnson across many sites throughout metro Atlanta.
Granite Company is one of the notable Today, Lithonia residents enjoy a thriving downtown
T industries in the town’s history. The city is culture, Farmers Market and annual events, including
surrounded by granite and its name derives from Greek its featured Collard Greens Cultural Festival. Movies are
combining lithos (stone) and onia (place). filmed here in the town’s historic settings. Lithonia Lighting
The 40,000-acre Arabia Mountain National Heritage
Area can be visited in Lithonia. It is dominated by two granite Company, one of North America’s largest manufacturers of
outcrops that have seen the span of human history from first commercial and residential light fixtures, was founded in the
peoples, to early settlers, immigrant rock cutters, and freed city in 1946 and had expanded to nearby areas.
enslaved people. Residents and visitors can tour through the Ruth Carroll
This otherworldly rock outcrop is a monadnock, a Dally Johnson Interpretive Garden that tells the stories of
geologic formation where the ground around it has been women’s and civil rights movements. It’s a gateway to Arabia
eroding for 400 million years. Arabia Mountain and Stone Mountain National Heritage Area.

44 Sp i rit o f D eK alb – B i centen n ial 1822-2022