History:

Suwanee began as an Indian village about 3 miles southwest of the current downtown area along the banks where Suwanee Creek runs into the Chattahoochee River. For hundreds of years prior to the beginning of the Town of Suwanee, a large Indian village flourished on both sides of the river. The village was originally settled by Shawnee Indians, but later, according to U.S. government documents, both Cherokee and Creek Indians came to the area they referred to as Suwanee Old Town. The village/town is shown on maps indicating land ceded to the U.S. government by the Cherokees in 1817 and the Creeks in 1818.

There are various accounts regarding the naming of the City of Suwanee. One suggests that Suwanee is an Indian word meaning "echo" while another maintains that it is the Creek word for Shawnee. Another account credits the name to the early white settlers' way of pronouncing the word "Shawnee." Either way, the name Suwanee appears to be closely tied to the City's Native American heritage.

The federal government recognized Suwanee as a town when the Suwanee Post Office was established in 1838. As is the case with many communities throughout the South, Suwanee's growth is tied to the evolution of transportation. As transportation evolved, so did the community of Suwanee.

On May 21, 1869, Abram Moore sold a right of way to the Georgia Airline Railroad. The Southern Railroad and depot were constructed through this section of Gwinnett County in 1871. The village of Suwanee grew around this depot. A second small railroad station, called Shadow Brook, was added on the south side of the railroad tracks at what is now the intersection of the tracks and Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road. "The Belle," which stopped at this station, was in operation from 1879 to 1931. In 1881 the Richmond & Danville railroad opened a narrow-gauge railroad, known as the Lawrenceville-Suwanee Narrow-Gauge Railroad, which ran from Lawrenceville to Suwanee. Suwanee became a changing station as people transferred from this line to the Southern Railroad line that could take them into Atlanta.