Sounds like a book I once read, but in this case it concerned two county seats in Georgia, ones that we visited on our way north the other day. The trip that day featured five counties with their courthouses, Candler, Laurens, Wilkinson, Newton and Rockdale, but I want to talk about two in particular, because the contrast was so great.
This is a tale of two courthouse towns, Irwinton, in Wilkinson County and Covington, in Newton County. Now I do not know a lot of the particulars of their stories, but these are only a small observation on each.
Wilkinson County, north of Dublin, on the road to Milledgeville, has its county seat at Irwinton. This county was formed by the state legislature in 1803, it had at least 5 courthouses over its lifetime, the last one built in 1924. One of the courthouses was burned by General Sherman on his march to Savannah in 1864.
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The county population in 1830 was around 6,500 people and the figure for 2010 was around 9,500 souls.
The downtown area, around the courthouse square looks like this today.
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The main highway has bypassed the town.
Now contrast this with Covington, the county seat of Newton County, just an hour or so north of Irwinton. Newton County was formed in 1821. The current courthouse was constructed in 1884 after the former one burned. The population of this county was 11,000 in 1830 and was 100,000 in 2010.
The courthouse is here and the traffic around the square, even on a Saturday afternoon, was heavy.
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What was the difference in the outcome for Irwinton and that of Covington?
Covington is close to Atlanta and Interstate 20 runs right past the town. It looks like it has become a bedroom community for the big city to the west.
It is like the old real estate adage: Location, location, location.
This is not to praise one and cast dispersion on the other. I do not know enough to say where I would rather live, but the contrast is obvious.
Just a few observations on the "Great Georgia Courthouse Tour".
Fun
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