The Echols County Courthouse at Statenville: the Grand Old Courthouses of Georgia

• Citation: Vol. 28 No. 5 Pg. 0028
• Publication year: 2023
• Pages: 0028

The Echols County Courthouse at Statenville: The Grand Old Courthouses of Georgia Vol. 28 No. 5 Pg. 28 Georgia Bar Journal April, 2023

BY WILBER W. CALDWELL

PHOTO COURTESY OF TED BROOKE

Completed in 1899, this sturdy frame courthouse sounded a late vernacular echo of the Greek Revival in Echols County. This building is typical of the many "Carpenter Greek" courthouses that rose in remote areas of the piney woods before the turn of the 20th century. In the same year that this courthouse was built in the tiny county town of Statenville, only eight miles north, the new rails of The Atlantic, Valdosta and Western Railroad cut through Echols on their way from Valdosta to Jacksonville, Florida. Several planned towns popped up along the new rails, including tiny Haylow where the new line crossed the "Live Oak Connector," an old spur to Florida built way back in 1864. Nearby, the ill-fated town of Fruitland was...