Bibb County Courthouse

Note: This is NOT the official web site of Bibb County or of any county officials; it is an educational web site about the history of the county courthouse and the county itself.  For the address and phone number of the courthouse and county officials, see the NaCO web page for Bibb County, linked below:

Address and Phone Number: See NaCO web page for Bibb County

Location: Macon

Date Built: 1924

Architectural Style: Neoclassical Revival

Designer: Curran R. Ellis

Other Information: This is Bibb County's fourth courthouse. The first was a one-room building built in 1825, the second was a brick building constructed in 1828. The third was a large, three-story structure with a clock tower, completed in 1870 [see postcard 1, postcard 2, and postcard 3]. The current courthouse was completed in 1924 [see postcard 4.] A jail was added to the top floor in 1926; the entire structure was remodeled in 1940 as a WPA project. The lobby floors are made of marble.

In 2007, the Bibb County Superior Court ordered the county to build a new courthouse. County officials said that the 1924 courhouse needed about $2 million in renovations. By 2009, the county was considering building a new courthouse and renovating the old courthouse--a $70 million undertaking that likely would be funded through a 1-cent local option sales tax.

County Courthouse Historical Marker: Click here

County History: Bibb County was created on Dec. 9, 1822, by an act of the General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1822, p. 21). Georgia's 55th county was created from portions of Houston, Jones, Monroe, and Twiggs counties and named for Georgia-born Dr. William Bibb, who was the first elected governor of Alabama.

County Seat: Macon [named after former U.S. Speaker of the House and then U.S. Senator from North Carolina Nathaniel Macon -- presumably because of the number of North Carolina settlers who moved into the area following the 1821 Treaty of Indian Spring, in which the Creeks ceded lands between the Ocmulgee and Flint rivers; created and designated county seat of Bibb County on Dec. 23, 1822, and incorporated Dec. 8, 1823]

Maps

• Georgia DOT Map of Bibb County, pdf (888K)
• Historical Maps of Bibb County

Size of County (Total Area): 255.2 square miles

County Rank in Total Area: 121st out of 159

Population:

Bibb County

• 153,887 (2000)
• Bibb County Historical Population Profile

City of Macon

• 97,255 (2000)

Go to Georgia County Courthouses Contents page