GeorgiaThe Oconee County Courthouse square in Watkinsville was the setting for one of the worst mass lynchings in Georgia history. Before dawn on June 29, 1905, a masked mob of fifty to a hundred men forced the marshal and jailer to open the county jail, marched nine prisoners to a fence a short distance away, and shot eight of them to death; seven were Black men and one was white, and no one was ever charged. In 2025 a memorial marker to the victims was unveiled at the courthouse. The present building itself was completed in 1939 with Works Progress Administration funding to designs by Atlanta architect William J. J. Chase in a restrained Stripped Classical style, replacing the county's first courthouse of 1875, built when Oconee separated from Clarke County; the 1905 lynching occurred at the earlier jail, not this structure. Chase designed several Georgia courthouses of the era, and a wing was added in 1998 as the building continues to serve the Watkinsville square.
Oconee County Courthouse
The stone-and-brick heart of every Georgia county.
Oconee County Courthouse is a courthouse in Watkinsville, Oconee County. It is one of 51 historic sites cataloged in Oconee County on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 33.8634, -83.4101 near Watkinsville. The nearest cataloged historic site is Farmers and Citizens Supply Company Block (historic place), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Site of Frontier Blockhouse, The Stoneman Raid, and Eagle Tavern.
This record is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
The Oconee County Courthouse square in Watkinsville was the setting for one of the worst mass lynchings in Georgia history. Before dawn on June 29, 1905, a masked mob of fifty to a hundred men forced the marshal and jailer to open the county jail, marched nine prisoners to a fence a short distance away, and shot eight of them to death; seven were Black men and one was white, and no one was ever charged. In 2025 a memorial marker to the victims was unveiled at the courthouse. The present building itself was completed in 1939 with Works Progress Administration funding to designs by Atlanta architect William J. J. Chase in a restrained Stripped Classical style, replacing the county's first courthouse of 1875, built when Oconee separated from Clarke County; the 1905 lynching occurred at the earlier jail, not this structure. Chase designed several Georgia courthouses of the era, and a wing was added in 1998 as the building continues to serve the Watkinsville square.
Sources: en.wikipedia.orgoconeecountyobservations.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.orglivingnewdeal.org
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