Editing Commerce, Georgia (section)

=== City history ===
The Harmony Grove community was officially incorporated as a town on December 24, 1884, including all areas within a one-mile radius of the railroad depot, one half mile east, and 400 yards west.

Harmony Grove Mills, Inc. was organized under the laws of Jackson County on April 3, 1893, for the purpose of processing and producing cotton [[textile]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://commercega.gov/experience/about-us|title= History of Commerce|publisher= City of Commerce Website |accessdate= July 11, 2023}}</ref> It served various purposes over the years, including the manufacture of [[denim]] overalls and the earliest production of electricity in the city. The mill village created to house employees makes up a significant portion of the homes on the southeast end of Commerce today. The mill had been in operation under various corporations until the spring of 2004, when it closed operations and was sold; it has been used for warehouse storage space since, and is currently for sale. The building is still a major feature of the city.

Near the end of the 19th century, many began to feel that the name "Harmony Grove" was too long to write and sounded too much like a country village. In addition, many didn't like the fact that mail frequently went to another post office by the same name in [[Dawson County, Georgia|Dawson County]]. Harmony Grove was reincorporated and renamed "Commerce" on August 6, 1904, in an effort to address these concerns and reflect the city's commercial dominance in the north Georgia cotton trade.<ref>{{cite book |title=Weird, Wacky, and Wild Georgia Trivia |last1=Watson |first1=Stephanie |first2=Lisa |last2=Wojna |year=2008 |publisher=Blue Bike Books |isbn=978-1-897278-44-4 |pages=60}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/c.pdf |title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins |publisher=Winship Press |author=Krakow, Kenneth K. |year=1975 |location=Macon, GA |pages=49 |isbn=0-915430-00-2}}</ref>

In 1959, a series of controversial town hall meetings were held to try to convince members of the federal Interstate Highway System to re-route the proposed [[Interstate 85]], originally planned to go through [[Gainesville, Georgia|Gainesville]] ([[Hall County, Georgia|Hall County]]), through Commerce and [[Lavonia, Georgia|Lavonia]] ([[Franklin County, Georgia|Franklin County]]). The proposal was changed, and the interstate was routed through Jackson County. Even more so than the railroad nearly a century before, this major transportation artery brought tremendous commercial advantage to Commerce, at a time it desperately needed it.