Formed December 3, 1832 (88th county)
Union County (24,626), Blairsville (616)
The Modern style brown brick courthouse was built in 1976. It replaced a classic 1899 courthouse. It is located on Courthouse Street at Pat Haralson Memorial Drive. United States Highway 76 is one block south of the site. The courthouse was enlarged in 1978 and 2005. Reynolds, Bailey, Vroom are the architects. Veteran memorials are on the grounds. Union County was taken from Cherokee County on December 3, 1832 as the 88th county with Blairsville as the only county seat. A group of citizens supporting opening the land for white settlement, the Union Party, inspired the name for the county. Newspaperman Francis Preston Blair is the county seat’s namesake. The county center is 2.8 miles Southwest of Blairsville.
The area of the county is 323 square miles. It is 93 out of 159 counties in the state. It ranks 77 out of 159 in population in the state. It has a density of 76.2 persons per square mile making it 70 out of 159 in the state. Union County has 2.5% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highways 19/129 enter from North Carolina, north, and go to Lumpkin County, south. United States Highway 76 crosses east to west from Towns County to Fannin County. The county’s shape could be described as a pistol. The highest point in Georgia, Brasstown Bald, is on its eastern border.
Union County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, a coroner, a clerk, and a tax commissioner (executive). It has 1 Commissioner (legislative.) Twenty-eight Superior Court Judges serve Union, Cherokee, Dawson, Fannin, Forsyth, Gilmer, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Lumpkin, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, and White counties and Five County Judges, court clerk, and county attorney serve Union County (judicial.) Union County is in the far northern part of the state on the border with North Carolina. Chattanooga, Tennessee is northwest of the county. Blairsville is in the northeast quarter of the county. Blairsville is the county seat and the largest and only incorporated city in the county. It is 2.5% of the county population. The county is surrounded clockwise by North Carolina and Towns, White, Lumpkin, and Fannin counties.
Blairsville
