- Collection:
- Georgia County Courthouses
- Title:
- Fannin County Courthouse
- Creator:
- Seibert, David, 1941-2020
- Date of Original:
- 2001/2004
- Subject:
- Courthouses--Georgia--Fannin County
Courthouses--Georgia--Blue Ridge - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fannin County, Blue Ridge, 34.86397, -84.32409
- Medium:
- photographs
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
- Description:
- Seat Information: The legislation creating Fannin County directed the justices of the county's inferior court to select the location of the county seat, with the only stipulation that the site be as near the center of the county as practicable. Until a county seat was designated and a courthouse built, the act directed that county business and elections take place at Joab Addington's Store. Subsequently, the inferior court designated Morganton as county seat. Reportedly, James Morris, an early settler, named Morganton after his previous hometown of Morganton, North Carolina. On March 5, 1856, the General Assembly incorporated Morganton (Ga. Laws 1855-56, p. 353). In June 1895, two-fifths of the voters of Fannin County signed a petition to change the county seat to the town of Blue Ridge. On Aug. 13, 1895, a referendum was held in which over two-thirds of the voters approved removal of the county seat. Based on that election, the General Assembly enacted legislation on Dec. 13, 1895, changing the county seat from Morganton to Blue Ridge (Ga. Laws 1895, p. 420). Blue Ridge, named for the Blue Ridge Mountains, had been incorporated by the legislature by an act of Oct. 24, 1887 (Ga. Laws 1887, p. 647).
Courthouse Details: The act creating Fannin County authorized the justices of the county's inferior court to select a county seat and provide for construction of a courthouse and other public buildings. Until such action was taken, the act directed that county business and elections take place at Joab Addington's Store. Fannin County's first courthouse, a small wooden structure, was built in Morgantown. Little is known about when, except that it reportedly burned down. In 1895, the county seat was moved to the town of Blue Ridge, where a two-story brick courthouse was built in 1895-96. The courthouse burned in 1936, and a new courthouse was completed the following year funded by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. In 2000, Fannin County voters approved a special-purpose local option sales tax to finance construction of a new courthouse and jail complex next door to the 1937 courthouse. An architect was selected in November 2000, with construction beginning the following year. Construction of the new courthouse was completed and the new building occupired in the spring of 2004. In July 2004, the Blue Ridge Mountain Arts Association began leasing the old courthouse, which was renamed The Georgia Mountain Center for the Arts. - External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/id:dlg_gacoch_fannin-county-courthouse
- Digital Object URL:
- http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/do:dlg_gacoch_fannin-county-courthouse
- Holding Institution:
- Digital Library of Georgia
- Rights:
-
