Category Archives: Watkinsville GA

Farmhouse Ruins, Oconee County

This appears to have been a hall-and-parlor house.

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Oconee County Courthouse, 1939, Watkinsville

Two courthouses in Watkinsville served as the government center of Clarke County. The first was built in 1806 and the second in 1849. When Oconee County was created in 1875, a new courthouse was built; it was replaced by the present structure in 1939, a project of the WPA.

Filling Station, Watkinsville

I’m not sure of its affiliation, but I’m sure this was an old filling station. These are often my favorite finds in towns and this one is really nice.

Historic Storefronts, Watkinsville

Downtown Watkinsville is small but busy. Historic storefronts line North Main Street, which is also Georgia Highway 15.

Barber shops and boutiques are among the new uses for these old buildings.

Eagle Tavern, Circa 1801, Watkinsville

When the Eagle Tavern was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, it was thought that it was constructed sometime around 1820, but subsequent research has set the date around 1801, possibly earlier. The location of present-day Watkinsville was still a part of the Cherokee and Creek territories when the tavern was built and the seat of the original Clarke County before Athens existed. It’s one of just a few stagecoach, pre-railroad era public structures surviving in Georgia. In 1836 Richard C. Richardson bought the tavern and made numerous additions over the years. In 1934, the tavern was saved from destruction by Lanier Richardson Billups, who deeded it to the state of Georgia in 1956. Under the direction of architect G. Thomas Little, Richardson’s additions were removed, revealing the Plantation Plain original section we see today. It is now home to the Eagle Tavern Museum.