Camden County Courthouse

Photo: Keith Hair

Note: This is NOT the official web site of Camden 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 Camden County, linked below:

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

Location: Woodbine

Date Built: 1928

Architectural Style: Twentieth-Century Gothic Revival

Designer: J. deBruyn Kops

Other Information: Camden County's first courthouse was a frame structure built at Jefferson in the early 1800s, before the county seat moved to St. Patrick, then finally to Woodbine. The current courthouse is the only Gothic Revival courthouse in Georgia.

County Courthouse Historical Marker: Click here

County History: The land that would form Camden County was ceded to the English by the Creeks in the Treaty of Savannah on May 21, 1733, confirmed and expanded by agreements of 1735 and 1736. By an act of March 15, 1758, the colonial legislature created seven parishes. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, Whig forces took control of government in Georgia. On Feb. 5, 1777, they adopted the state's first constitution -- the Constitution of 1777. Art. IV of that document transformed the existing colonial parishes into seven counties, with Indian ceded lands forming an eighth county. Camden County, which was last on the list and thus is considered Georgia's eighth county, consisted of Saint Thomas and Saint Mary parishes (see map). The county was named for the Earl of Camden, who supported the American colonies' cause prior to the Revolution. In 1854, the legislature took land from Camden County to form Charlton County

County Seat: On Feb. 10, 1787, the General Assembly designated the community of St. Patrick's as county seat of Camden County. In 1792, that act was repealed and the legislature appointed commissioners to select a new site for the county courthouse and jail. Apparently, Camden County was without an official county seat from 1792 until 1800, when the legislature designated Jefferson [later Jeffersonton] seat of government. Jeffersonton served as county seat until 1869, when the General Assembly named St. Marys as the new county seat. In 1923, an act was approved moving the county seat to Woodbine. Incorporated on Aug. 13, 1908, Woodbine presumably was named for the honeysuckle plant of the same name.

Maps

• Georgia DOT Map of Camden County, pdf (1553K)
• Historical Maps of Camden County

Size of County (Total Area): 782.5 square miles

County Rank in Total Area: 6th out of 159

Population:

Camden County

• 43,664 (2000)
• Camden County Historical Population Profile

City of Woodbine

• 1,218 (2000)

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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