Clay County Courthouse

Built in 1871. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

From the record

“The Clay County Courthouse in Fort Gaines, Georgia was built in about 1871. It is a two-story brick building that "looks more like an antebellum plantation house than a courthouse." It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.”
Wikipedia article Clay County Courthouse (Georgia), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 6 National Register listings published here for Clay County · listed in 1980 · category: Building · built in 1871.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. Off GA 37, Fort Gaines, 39851
When was it listed? September 1980
Category. building
Also known as. Georgia County Courthouses TR
Census division. Fort Gaines
When was it built? 1871
National Register reference number. 80000992 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

70 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 70 fires within 5 miles of Clay County Courthouse between 1992 and 2020, burning about 420 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	44
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	14
Natural	4
Arson/incendiarism	4
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Smoking	1
Recreation and ceremony	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 September 1995	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
29 September 2001	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2002-CLAY-001
24 September 2008	Debris and open burning	3.0 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
23 September 1996	Natural	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
3 August 2010	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2011-CLAY-001
19 August 2007	Natural	29 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
19 August 1996	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.1 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
13 August 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	20190813-1

Every fire recorded in Clay County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Clay County Courthouse: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Unnamed Mine	Iron	Past Producer

Storms near this property

15 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fort Gaines, the town this property stands in, in 15 storm reports between 2009 and 2026: 14 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
March 2019	Tornado (EF0)	Fort Gaines	$10,000	The tornado touched down in Henry County Alabama in an area just south of Shorterville on Henry County Route 47 between Bennett Mill Creek and Route 188. There were several softwood trees uprooted in this area. The tornado proceeded northeast across the Chattahoochee River into Clay County Georgia. The damage in Clay County Georgia began on Route 39/ Washington Street near the intersection of Blakely and Blufton Highways. There were several softwood trees uprooted in this area, as well as some roofing material removed from the roadway. Additional softwood trees were uprooted at several points between the aforementioned intersection to a point just north of Route 37/ Edison Highway along Wesely Chapel Road. In addition, Center Line Irrigation was also downed near the previously mentioned location. Damage cost was estimated.
September 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	$4,000	Several trees were blown down along West Bluffton Road. The monetary damage figure provided is a rough estimate.
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	$3,000	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down across Clay county.
January 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	$3,000	Two trees were blown down along with a blown transformer between Church Street and College Street.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	$3,000	Trees and power lines were blown down in Fort Gaines.
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	$2,000	A power line was blown down south of Fort Gaines along Smith Lane.
March 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	$2,000	Power lines were blown down along Highway 37 south of Fort Gaines. In addition, several trees were reported down throughout Clay county.
April 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	$2,000	Trees and power lines were blown down.
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	$1,000	A tree was blown down along Highway 39.
April 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	-	Scattered trees were blown down.
April 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	-	Trees were blown down with power lines on Highway 39 and Highway 37.
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	-	Multiple trees were blown down near Fort Gaines along Edison Highway.
January 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	-	There was widespread tree damage throughout Clay county, heaviest near the Fort Gaines area.
February 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	-	Trees were blown down around Highway 37 near Fort Gaines.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Fort Gaines	-	Numerous trees were down.

Every storm recorded in Clay County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

4 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Dill House	0.1 miles	1975
Fort Gaines Historic District	0.1 miles	1984
Fort Gaines Cemetery Site	0.3 miles	1974
Toney-Standley House	7.9 miles	1974

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 80000992 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Clay County	All 6 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.