Athens, Georgia

City: Athens

County: Clarke

State: Georgia

Lat/Long: 33.9500, -83.3667

Located in northeast Georgia, approximately sixty miles east northeast of Atlanta, Athens is the county seat of Clarke County. Athens grew and developed around the University of Georgia, which the Georgia General Assembly chartered in 1785 and established in 1801. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated it as a town in 1806. By the 1820s, Athens had become a thriving center for textile manufacturing. Spared major military battles during the Civil War, Athens was a rallying point for Confederate enlistees and a haven for civilians escaping from other theaters of combat.

Frances T. Thomas, "Athens" New Georgia Encyclopedia, 27 July 2017, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/counties-cities-neighborhoods/athens, accessed 2 January 2020; Frank R. Abate, ed., American Places Dictionary (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1994), 2:202; Webster's New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1988), 88; Paul T. Hellmann, Historical Gazetteer of the United States (New York: Routledge, 2005), 136.