Carter

Formed April 9, 1796 (11^th county)

Carter County (56,349), Elizabethton (14,545)

The dark red brick courthouse, at Elk Street east of Main Street, was built in 1852 and remodeled in 1933.  United States Highway 19 East is one block to the east of the site.  Joseph S. Burts designed this Classical Revival building.  The structure was enlarged in 1987.  The courthouse features columns and a large veterans’ spire sits in front of the building.  Carter County was created on April 9, 1796 from Washington County as the 11^th county.  Elizabethton has always been the county seat.  The county is named for Legislator Landon Carter.  The county seat is named for Carter’s wife, Elizabeth MacLin Carter.  Carter County was the birthplace of 2 Tennessee Governors, Robert L. Taylor and Alfred A. Taylor. 

Carter County government consists of a sheriff, a County Mayor, and 24 Commissioners.  Four Circuit Court Judges, One Chancery Court Judge, and One General Court Judge serve Carter, Johnson, Unicoi, and Washington counties.  The county is on the northeast border with North Carolina.  Knoxville, Tennessee is southwest and Greensboro, North Carolina is southeast of the county.  The county center is 9.5 miles Southeast of Elizabethton nearer Hampton.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Sullivan and Johnson counties and North Carolina and Unicoi and Washington counties. 

The area of the county is 341 square miles.  It is 64 out of 95 in the state.  It ranks 26 out of 95 in population in the state.  It has a density of 165.2 persons per square mile making it 21 out of 95 in the state.  Carter County has 28.8% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 26 clips the northwest corner of the county from Washington County to Unicoi County.  United States Highway 19 East enters from Sullivan County, north, and exits to North Carolina, south.  United States Highway 19 West is joined with Interstate Highway 26 from Washington to Unicoi counties.  United States Highway 321 comes from North Carolina, east, and goes to Washington County, west.  The county looks like a pistol pointing northeast.  Elizabethton is located in the northwest quarter of the county.  Elizabethton is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 25.8% of the county population.  This county is in the Johnson City Metropolitan Statistical Area.