Webster County Courthouse - Preston, Georgia
N 32° 03.959 W 084° 32.201
16S E 732538 N 3550404
The Webster County Courthouse is located on the courthouse square in Preston, Georgia.
Waymark Code: WM4HCR
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 08/25/2008
Views: 40
For most Georgia counties created in the 19th century, the enabling legislation authorized the county's inferior court to select a county seat and contract for erection of a courthouse. However, the 1853 legislation creating Kinchafoonee County (subsequently renamed Webster County) provided for selecting a county seat -- but not erecting a courthouse. It is unclear where court sessions and other county business initially was conducted. However, the Dec. 22, 1857 act incorporating Preston directed that elections be held at the courthouse or some other convenient place in the town. Some accounts suggest that Webster County's first courthouse was built in 1860. Whenever it was constructed, the courthouse survived until 1914, when it was destroyed by fire. The current courthouse was built the following year. A Georgia Historic Marker on the Courthouse lawn details the history of the first Confederate Flag Raising in Georgia.
""On this Courthouse lawn the first Confederate flag raising in Georgia took place March 31, 1861. Judge David B. Harrell of Webster County, Capt. James Pickett of Red Hill, Dr. Harvis Pickett of Weston, with their companies of soldiers, trained in Preston. Voting for Miss Mollie Josey as the most popular girl in town, the troops chose her to raise the flag. With much ceremony and enthusiasm a vast crowd witnessed the rites. At the end of the war Union troops stationed in Preston cut down and destroyed the flagpole"
Year Built: 1915
Current Use of Building: County Courthouse
Level of Courts: County
Architect: T.F. Lockwood, Sr.
Dates this building was used to house judicial proceedings: 1915-Present
Physical Address:
Courthouse Square
Preston, Georgia
31824
Hours:
Monday - Friday
8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Related Website: [Web Link]
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