GeorgiaThis record is the Augusta-Richmond County Judicial Center and John H. Ruffin Jr. Courthouse, a modern 180,000-square-foot building at 735 James Brown Boulevard in downtown Augusta, dedicated in 2011 after a roughly $67 million project begun in 2008. It consolidated the Superior, State, Civil-Magistrate, Juvenile, and Probate courts that had previously been scattered across the city. The courthouse honors John H. Ruffin Jr., the first Black judge of the Augusta Judicial Circuit and later a state appellate judge, whose civil-rights lawsuits as an attorney helped desegregate Richmond County's public schools, its police department, and its municipal golf course. Naming a newly unified courthouse for a lawyer who had once sued the county to dismantle segregation gave the building a symbolic weight beyond its judicial function. It remains Augusta's principal seat of justice, a distinctly contemporary structure rather than a historic square courthouse.
Richmond County Courthouse
The stone-and-brick heart of every Georgia county.
Richmond County Courthouse is a courthouse in Augusta, Richmond County. It is one of 2 courthouses documented in Richmond County, among 249 historic sites cataloged across the county on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 33.4697, -81.9720 near Augusta. The nearest cataloged historic site is Neighbors on the Canal (historical marker), about 0.2 miles away. Others within a short drive include Dyess Park, Georgia R.R. & Banking Co., and Trinity CME.
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 record is the Augusta-Richmond County Judicial Center and John H. Ruffin Jr. Courthouse, a modern 180,000-square-foot building at 735 James Brown Boulevard in downtown Augusta, dedicated in 2011 after a roughly $67 million project begun in 2008. It consolidated the Superior, State, Civil-Magistrate, Juvenile, and Probate courts that had previously been scattered across the city. The courthouse honors John H. Ruffin Jr., the first Black judge of the Augusta Judicial Circuit and later a state appellate judge, whose civil-rights lawsuits as an attorney helped desegregate Richmond County's public schools, its police department, and its municipal golf course. Naming a newly unified courthouse for a lawyer who had once sued the county to dismantle segregation gave the building a symbolic weight beyond its judicial function. It remains Augusta's principal seat of justice, a distinctly contemporary structure rather than a historic square courthouse.
Sources: augustaga.govhmdb.org
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.
