Bay

Formed April 24, 1913 (49^th county)

Bay County (175,204), Panama City (32,980)

The columned entry to the tan brick courthouse gives it a government aura.  This Classical Revival style 1914 structure is located at 4^th Street and McKenzie Avenue.  United States Highway 98 Business is two blocks north.  S. J. Welch provided the designs.  The building was repaired in 1920 after a fire and remodeled and enlarged in 1978.  It is being restored in 2019.  Veteran memorials are on the grounds and the courthouse sits on an inlet to the bay.  The county is named for St. Andrew Bay where Panama City is located. 

Bay County government consists of a manager, sheriff, and appraiser (executive).  It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.)  Nine Circuit Court Judges serve Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, and Washington counties and Three County Court Judges, clerk, and county attorney serve Bay County (judicial.) The county seat is located on a direct line between Chicago, Illinois and the Panama Canal which is the rationale for its name.  Panama City has been the only county seat.  The county was created on April 24, 1913 from parts of Calhoun and Washington counties as the 49^th county.  It is located in the northwest panhandle of the state on the Gulf of Mexico.  Tallahassee, Florida is east of the county.  The center of the county is in Panama City 5.7 miles Northwest of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Washington, Jackson, Calhoun, and Gulf counties and the Gulf of Mexico and Walton County. 

The area of the county is 764 square miles.  It is 29 out of 67 counties in the state.  It ranks 30 out of 67 in population in the state.  It has a density of 229.3 persons per square mile making it 32 out of 67 in the state.  Bay County has 54.7% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 98 enters from the southeast, Gulf County, and exits to the west, Walton County.  United States Highway 231 comes in from the north, Jackson County and terminates in the county.  The county shape is a plow with a handle on the northeast corner.  Panama City is in the southern third of the county.  Panama City is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 18.8% of the county population.  This county is in the Panama City-Lynn Haven-Panama City Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Springfield