The general store · 1923
Snellville History
Snellville's origin story is a general store. Thomas Snell and James Sawyer opened theirs in the 1870s, built it into a retail center that drew customers from miles around, and gave the settlement a name and a reason to exist. The city was incorporated in 1923.
Before the charter, locals sometimes called the settlement London City, a nickname that survives in the city's memory if not its name.
The founding story
Five hundred dollars a day
The area was originally Creek territory, opened to settlers after Gwinnett County was created in 1818 and the land lottery of 1820. In the 1870s, Thomas Snell and James Sawyer opened a general store that reportedly took in as much as five hundred dollars a day, drawing customers from miles around. The settlement was sometimes called London City before its incorporation, and the Georgia General Assembly granted the charter in 1923.
The modern era
From farm center to bedroom city
After the Second World War, Snellville shifted from an agricultural center to a bedroom community, and it has grown past twenty thousand residents. The Scenic Highway corridor and the Piedmont Eastside hospital anchor the modern city, while the Main Street block keeps the general-store-era center.
An editorial guide, not a listings site. Updated September 13, 2026. Real-estate guidance on this page is provided by Rob Dietrich, REALTOR® with eXp Realty, LLC.