Cobb

Formed December 3, 1832 (81^st county)

Cobb County (766,160), Marietta (61,052)

The Modern style red brick and concrete structure was built in 2011.  Piper O’Brien Herr Architects provided the designs.  It is located on Waddell Street between Anderson and Washington avenues.  United States Highway 41 is 18 blocks east of the location.  Earlier versions were built in 1873 and 1968 since organization on December 3, 1832 as the 81^st county.  A Justice Center was built earlier in 1995.  The county was part of Cherokee County.  Marietta has been the only county seat.  Senator Thomas Willis Cobb is the source for county’s name.  One source says the wife of Senator Cobb is the namesake of Marietta while another says Marietta, Ohio.  Cobb County was the birthplace of 1 Georgia Governor, Roy E. Barnes.  The county center is 4.5 miles South-Southwest of Marietta. 

Cobb County government consists of a manager, a sheriff, an administrator, a coroner, a clerk, and a tax commissioner (executive).  It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.)  Thirty-two Superior Court Judges serve Cobb, Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Douglas, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson, Murray, Paulding, Polk, Walker, and Whitfield counties and Nine State Judges and Nineteen County Judges, court clerk, and county attorney serve Cobb County (judicial.) The county is in northwest part of the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Cherokee, Fulton, Douglas, Paulding, and Bartow counties. 

The area of the county is 340 square miles.  It is 83 of 159 in size in the state.  It ranks 3 out of 159 in population in the state.  It has a density of 2253.4 persons per square mile making it 2 out of 159 in the state.  Cobb County has 25.7% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 75 enters the county from Gordon County to the northwest and exits southeast into Fulton County.  United States Highway 41 parallels Interstate Highway 75 from Gordon County to Fulton County.  United States Highway 78 crosses the southern tip from Fulton County, east, to Douglas County, west.  United States Highway 278 enters combined with United States Highway 78 from Fulton County, splits, and exits northwest into Paulding County.  The county is shaped like a fat thumb tack.  Marietta is slightly north and east of center in the county.  Marietta is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 8.0% of the county population.  This county is in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area.