GeorgiaOverlooking the Chattahoochee River at Fort Gaines, the Clay County Courthouse was begun in 1871 and finished in 1873, a two-story hipped-roof brick building whose Carpenter-style restraint makes it look more like an antebellum plantation house than a public building. It is the oldest Georgia courthouse still in continuous use on its original site and remains the seat of the Pataula Judicial Circuit; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The town itself long predated the county government: Fort Gaines was established in 1814 during the Creek wars, and during the Civil War the bluff above the river was fortified as a Confederate strongpoint, its gun emplacements positioned to guard the Chattahoochee against Union gunboats. Those earthworks and cannon overlooked the river town rather than the courthouse square, since the present courthouse was not built until several years after the war ended.
Clay County Courthouse (Courthouse)
The stone-and-brick heart of every Georgia county.
Clay County Courthouse is a courthouse in Fort Gaines, Clay County. It is one of 63 historic sites cataloged in Clay County on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 31.6042, -85.0484 near Fort Gaines. The nearest cataloged historic site is Clay County Courthouse (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Gen. Edmund Pendleton Gaines, Clay County, and Queen City of the Chattahoochee.
This record is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
Overlooking the Chattahoochee River at Fort Gaines, the Clay County Courthouse was begun in 1871 and finished in 1873, a two-story hipped-roof brick building whose Carpenter-style restraint makes it look more like an antebellum plantation house than a public building. It is the oldest Georgia courthouse still in continuous use on its original site and remains the seat of the Pataula Judicial Circuit; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The town itself long predated the county government: Fort Gaines was established in 1814 during the Creek wars, and during the Civil War the bluff above the river was fortified as a Confederate strongpoint, its gun emplacements positioned to guard the Chattahoochee against Union gunboats. Those earthworks and cannon overlooked the river town rather than the courthouse square, since the present courthouse was not built until several years after the war ended.
“Clay County Courthouse” names 3 distinct records in Clay County. This page is the courthouse in Fort Gaines. The others:
Get Georgia Roam — 12,000+ historic sites in your pocket
See this site and every marker, cemetery, courthouse, museum, battlefield and landmark across Georgia on one live map — find what's near you, get directions, and collect sites as you roam.
