Penfield, Georgia

Penfield, Georgia, United States was established shortly after 1829 in Greene County, and named in honor of Josiah Penfield (1785–1828), a Savannah merchant and silversmith from Fairfield, Connecticut, who bequeathed $2,500 and a financial challenge to the Georgia Baptist Convention to match his gift for educational purposes.

Hard times brought on by the American Civil War, however, initiated the school's move to Macon in 1871 and the village of Penfield survived on the strength of the cotton industry.

Today, the village of Penfield is distinguished by the Greek Revival architecture of Old Mercer Chapel, community churches, town cemetery, and Victorian homes that flourished until 1919 when the prosperity built during the "Cotton Era" was ended by the boll weevil.

Ruins of the town's mercantile buildings, bank, post office and Mercer Institute's (science building, dormitory, Phi Delta Literary Society Hall, Ciceronian Hall and others) can be seen next to the still-functioning chapel located just above the old town square along East Main Street.

In 1976, the village of Penfield was added to the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its contributions to architecture, education and religion from 1825 to 1874.