.. Built in 1860

Built in 1860- in a bad state of disrepair - located one block from the modern courthouse. Leaves me to wonder if this was once Main Streeet - if anyone knows would like to know the answer to why this is located on this sidestreet.

Spalding County Courthouse (1911-1981)

County Seat The act creating Spalding County designated the town of Griffin to serve as county seat and directed the county's new inferior court to select a site for construction of the county's public buildings. Griffin was incorporated as a town on Dec. 28, 1843, while located in Pike County (Ga. Laws 1843, p. 106). Griffin was initially settled in the 1820s and was first known as Pleasant Grove. In 1840, Col. Lewis Griffin purchased 800 acres of land around the settlement. In 1841, a town was laid out and named after the area's largest land owner.

SPALDING, Thomas, 1774-1851 SPALDING, Thomas, was a Representative from Georgia; he was born in Frederica, St. Simons Island, in Glynn County, Georgia on March 26, 1774. Thomas attended the schools (common) of Georgia and Florida and a private school in Massachusetts. He studied law and was admitted to the bar about 1790, but he did not practice. Thomas extolled himself in an extensive pursuit of agriculture. Other Items of Interest: He was a member of the State House of Representatives in 1794. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1798. In 1803 he moved to McIntosh County in Georgia. He served in the State Senate He moved to McIntosh County, Ga., in 1803; served in the State senate. He successfully successfully contested as a Republican the election of Cowles Mead to the Ninth Congress and served from December 24, 1805, until his resignation in 1806 He also served as a trustee of the McIntosh County Academy in 1807 and pne of the founders of the Bank of Darien and of the branch in Milledgeville, Georgia and as President of same for many years; While residing on Sapelo Island in Georgia he engaged in the planting of sea-island cotton. He served as a commissioner on the part of the State of Georgia in the determination of the boundary line between Georgia and the Territory of Florida in 1826; He served as commissioner from the Federal Government to Bermuda to negotiate relative to property taken or destroyed in the South by the British in the War of 1812. He served as President of the convention at Milledgeville, Georgia, in 1850 which resolved that the State of Georgia would resist any act of Congress abolishing slavery and died, while en route home, at the residence of his son, near Darien, Ga., Interred at St. Andrew’s Cemetery -- January 5, 1851

The act that created Spalding County .... also directed that the Courthouse be built in Griffin and authorized that the Counties Inferior Court should be directed to select the site for it to be built.

Thus..... The Griffin City Hall served as the Spalding County courthouse until 1859, at which time a two-story red brick building was completed . Note: The steeple and clock tower were removed from the courthouse in 1910 at which time the building was converted into the county jail. And the Courthouse Saga Continues.... A new two-story yellow brick courthouse, which was designed by A. Ten Eyck Brown was completed in 1911 - thus this building served until Jan. 12, 1981, when its interior was gutted by a fire believed to have started in the wiring. The survival of most of the records stored in the courthouse was indeed a wonderful thing, the building was so damaged that it had to be torn down. Thus the Courthouse saga continues... Enters the courthouse annex, which had been built across the street from the courthouse in the early 1970s -- this now became the temporary courthouse. In the summer of 1981, contracted for the remodeling of a former A&P grocery store in Griffin for use by county courts and departments. This building served as Spalding County's temporary courthouse for four years. Meanwhile,construction of the current courthouse on the site of the former courthouse began. Construction of the current courthouse was completed in the summer of 1985, and in September, county courts and departments moved in. Created from portions of Fayette, Henry, and Pike Counties, its original boundaries were specified as:Beginning on the line now separating the counties of Henry and Butts, where the Towaliga river crosses the said line, and running up the middle of the stream of said river to the point where the western line of lot of land number one hundred and eighteen in the original second district of Henry county crosses the same; thence north along the line as run by the Surveyor in laying off said district into lots, to the north-east corner of lot number one hundred and forty-nine in the said district; thence west on the original surveyed line to the south-west corner of lot number one hundred and eighty-two, in the original third district of Henry county; thence north across two ranges of lots; thence west along the surveyed line to ~Flint river in Fayette county; thence down the middle of the main stream of said river to the south line of the eighth range of lots in the county of Pike; thence east along the surveyed line to the principal branch of the Potatoe Creek, in Pike county; thence down the run of the creek across one range of lots;~ thence east along the surveyed line to the line now separating the counties of Pike and Monroe; thence north along the said line to the south-west corner of Butts county; thence with the line separating Butts from Pike and Henry counties, to the beginning . . .