Homer, Georgia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Homer is a town in Banks County, Georgia, United States. The population was 950 at the 2000 census. The city of Homer has a mayor, Doug Cheek, and three City Councilpersons, Sandra Garrison, Bobby Caudell and Roy Broome. The city is the county seat of Banks County^GR6.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Demographics
4 External links

[edit] Geography

A view of downtown Homer's main street.

Looking across the park downtown towards the old Banks County courthouse, the large brick building in the left background.

A closeup of the Old Banks County Courthouse, now a tourist attraction.

The New Banks County Courthouse which is located on a side street behind the old courthouse.

A view down a side street off of the main street of Homer. The church is the First Baptist Church of Homer.

Homer is located at 34°20′2″N, 83°29′59″W (34.333851, -83.499844)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 24.8 km² (9.6 mi²), all land.

[edit] History

Homer was incorporated as a town in 1859 and its first courthouse was built in 1863.

Homer is among the earliest to hold the world record for an Easter egg hunt - 80,000 eggs, listed in the 1985 Guinness Book of World Records. The event in the small town of 950 people is an Easter Sunday tradition that's lasted 47 years. The egg hunt each year and draws about 5,000 egg hunters, children and adults.

Even though it no longer holds the record, Homer has long touted its annual hunt as the world's largest.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 950 people, 366 households, and 249 families residing in the town. The population density was 38.2/km² (99.1/mi²). There were 406 housing units at an average density of 16.3/km² (42.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 84.32% White, 11.79% African American, 1.16% Native American, 0.84% Asian, 1.16% from other races, and 0.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.00% of the population.

There were 366 households out of which 36.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.4% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.7% were non-families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.16.

In the town the population was spread out with 28.1% under the age of 18, 10.5% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 95.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.1 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $35,500, and the median income for a family was $41,667. Males had a median income of $30,147 versus $23,438 for females. The per capita income for the town was $17,353. About 8.9% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.3% of those under age 18 and 21.1% of those age 65 or over.