Douglas

Formed October 1, 1870 (131^st county)

Douglas County (144,227), Douglasville (34,655)

The Modern Classical Revival style red brick and masonry courthouse, built in 1997, is located on Hospital at Dorris Street.  Interstate Highway 20 is ½ mile south of the site.  Cooper Carry Inc., are the building designers.  It features columns and an eternal veterans flame on the grounds.  The county was formed on October 1, 1870 from parts of Carroll County and Campbell County (which no longer exists) as the 131^st county.  There were 1896 and 1957 courthouses earlier in Douglasville the only county seat.  The county and county seat were named for Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas as was the county seat of Coffee County.  The county center is 2.1 miles Southeast of Douglasville. 

Douglas County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, a coroner, a clerk, and a tax commissioner (executive).  It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.)  Thirty-two Superior Court Judges serve Douglas, Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cobb, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson, Murray, Paulding, Polk, Walker, and Whitfield counties and Two State Judges and Seven County Judges, court clerk, and county attorney serve Douglas County (judicial.) The county is in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area immediately to the west of Atlanta, Georgia.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Cobb, Fulton, Carroll, and Paulding counties. 

The area of the county is 199 square miles.  It is 138 of 159 in size in the state.  It ranks 18 out of 159 in population in the state.  It has a density of 724.8 persons per square mile making it 10 out of 159 in the state.  Douglas County has 24.0% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 20 goes east to west in the county from Cobb County to Carroll County.  United States Highway 78 parallels Interstate Highway 20 from Cobb County to Carroll County.  The county looks like a small letter r with Douglasville being near the northern border.  Douglasville is the county seat and largest city.  It is 24.0% of the county population.  This county is in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area.