GeorgiaThis courthouse hosted one of the most remarkable inheritance cases in Georgia history. After the wealthy white planter David Dickson died in 1885 leaving the bulk of his roughly $300,000 estate to Amanda America Dickson, his mixed-race daughter, some seventy-nine white relatives contested the will; the Superior Court of Hancock County ruled in Amanda Dickson's favor in November 1885, and the Georgia Supreme Court upheld that decision in 1887, effectively making her one of the wealthiest Black women in the nineteenth-century South. The building itself was constructed between 1881 and 1883 in the Second Empire style by the firm of Parkins and Bruce, long regarded as one of Georgia's finest county courthouses, and is a contributing building in the National Register-listed Sparta Historic District. On August 11, 2014, the historic structure was gutted by fire. The county undertook a roughly $7.5 million reconstruction and rededicated the rebuilt courthouse, including its restored clock tower, two years later.
Hancock County Courthouse
The stone-and-brick heart of every Georgia county.
Hancock County Courthouse is a courthouse in Sparta, Hancock County. It is one of 163 historic sites cataloged in Hancock County on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 33.2754, -82.9755 near Sparta. The nearest cataloged historic site is Old Eagle Tavern (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Hancock County, Pierce Memorial Methodist Church, and Sparta Cemetery.
This record is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
This courthouse hosted one of the most remarkable inheritance cases in Georgia history. After the wealthy white planter David Dickson died in 1885 leaving the bulk of his roughly $300,000 estate to Amanda America Dickson, his mixed-race daughter, some seventy-nine white relatives contested the will; the Superior Court of Hancock County ruled in Amanda Dickson's favor in November 1885, and the Georgia Supreme Court upheld that decision in 1887, effectively making her one of the wealthiest Black women in the nineteenth-century South. The building itself was constructed between 1881 and 1883 in the Second Empire style by the firm of Parkins and Bruce, long regarded as one of Georgia's finest county courthouses, and is a contributing building in the National Register-listed Sparta Historic District. On August 11, 2014, the historic structure was gutted by fire. The county undertook a roughly $7.5 million reconstruction and rededicated the rebuilt courthouse, including its restored clock tower, two years later.
Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.org13wmaz.comen.wikipedia.orggeorgiatrust.org
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