Lilburn GA

Lilburn, GA at a Glance

Due to zoning laws that have bridled residential expansion over the years, the predominantly modern houses and tidy lawns of Lilburn, Georgia retain a quiet and un-crowded feel. It is an attractive, well-balanced suburb of Gwinnett County, where local business is hale and bustling Atlanta a painless 35-minutes away.

Formerly known as McDaniel after the 1820 winner of a Georgia land lotto, the city of Lilburn was renamed after Lilburn Trigg Myers of the Seaboard Airline Railroad around 1900, and incorporated as such in 1910. Though the railroad gave the town a boost, it underwent a string of hardships over the following decades, with a fire at the Lilburn Supply Company in 1920 ravaging nearly all its budding business district and a boll weevil invasion from Mexico destroying its precious cotton crops shortly after. By the time the depression struck in 1929, the municipality had wasted away and its government ceased to exist.

As highways and automobiles transformed the national landscape and economy, many of Lilburn's remaining residents relocated to the area along Highway 29, thereby creating new Lilburn. Gradually the city revived as a government was reinstated in 1959 to oversee the installment of a new waterline, and a City Hall was erected in Old Town Lilburn in 1976.

Lilburn, GA at a Glance

Today accessibility is the word for public resources in Lilburn. Four major hospitals are located within 10 minutes of its borders and three branches of the Gwinnett Public Library fall inside city lines. Lilburn students attend Gwinnet County's award-winning public schools, which make up the largest school system in Georgia.

The newly renovated Lilburn City Park provides Lilburn residents with 10 acres of walking and jogging paths, tennis courts, playgrounds, and open field; plus a rental pavilion and bandstand behind the Calvin Fitchett Municipal Complex on Main. Just across from the park is the entrance to the Camp Creek Greenway Trail. Stretching for more than 13 acres, the scenic path is interspersed with boardwalks, bridges, park and trail loops and rest areas.

A 24-acre petting zoo at Yellow Game Ranch is also a popular Lilburn attraction. The wooded expanse shelters docile animals that visitors may pet and feed including deer, rabbits, sheep, and goats. Friendly fawns make a frolicking ground of the mile long-trail in back of the ranch, and at Billy Goat Gruff Memorial Bridge, formidable bears rise on two feet to greet passersby. Behind the meadow there also roams the largest herd of Buffalo this side of the Mississippi.

A festival called Lilburn Daze is a focal part of Lilburn's city culture. Each year local artists, performers, writers, and innovators gather to exhibit their work in City Park, usually on a Saturday during the latter end of October. Along with hundreds of arts and crafts vendors and food stands, the event features a carnival for kids, presentations on local organizations and community projects, as well as a health fair. Sponsored by the City of Lilburn and Lilburn Women's Club, Lilburn Daze is free to attend, with revenue from sales going toward scholarships, educational programs, and local arts and charitable organizations like the Hudgens Center for the Arts and DFCS, Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, Hi-Hope, and the Veterans Administration Hospital.

An amateur singing contest sponsored by the Lilburn Women's Group also takes place annually. Inspired by the hit television show American Idol, the local Lilburn Idol is held at the Bandstand in City Park.

Music on Main is another favorite Lilburn event. Organized by the Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, it features music, food, activities and games and auctions to benefit children with complex medical conditions.

The warm and vital Lilburn community is home to a number of famous individuals and to sports stars in particular. Notable residents include Atlanta Falcons NFL player Michael Palmer, Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau, MLB player Jeff Francoeur, and NBA player Dominique Wilkins.