Whitfield County Courthouse-Dalton, Georgia
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Sprinterman
N 34° 46.343 W 084° 58.304
16S E 685607 N 3849675
On Selvidge St. at King St. in downtown Dalton.
Waymark Code: WM6Y03
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 08/03/2009
Views: 6
Whitfield County's first courthouse was a wooden structure built in Dalton at some point after the county's creation in 1851. That building was burned by Sherman's forces in 1864. It is not clear what served as courthouse for the next 27 years, but in 1891 a new two-story brick was completed. Around 1960, this building was torn down and the present courthouse erected in its place in 1961. In later years, the Whitfield County Courthouse Annex was built directly across the street from the county courthouse. In November 2000, Whitfield County voters approved a 5-year $58 million special-purpose local option sales tax to relieve overcrowding in the county jail, expand the county courthouse, and fund a number of other projects. Approximately $29 million of the total was dedicated to a new courthouse and parking deck. Rather than tear down the 1961 courthouse, the county built the new courthouse to completely absorb the old structure. The result is a much larger and totally redesigned courthouse.
Whitfield County was created from Murray County on Dec. 30, 1851 by an act of the General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1851-52, p. 56). According to that act, Whitfield County's boundaries were specified as:
Beginning at the south-west corner of the county of Murray; running from thence east with the line between Murray and Gordon counties, until it strikes the mouth of the Conasauga river; thence up and with the meanders of said river, to the mouth of Sugar Creek; thence with the meanders of said creek to the Tennessee line; thence west with said line to the line of Walker and Murray county; thence south with the line of Murray and Walker to the [place of] beginning.
Georgia's 98th county was named for the famous Anglican evangelist George Whitefield (1714-177), who is perhaps best remembered in Georgia for establishing the Bethesda Orphanage near Savannah in 1740. Apparently to insure the correct pronunciation of Whitefield's name (which is "Whit-field" not "White-field"), the legislature dropped the "e" from Whitefield in the legislation creating Whitfield County.
In 1853, part of Whitfield County was used to create Catoosa County.
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