Community Overview

History:

Augusta, Georgia, located in the east central section of the state, is approximately 150 miles east of Atlanta on Interstate 20. The Savannah River serves as the boundary between Augusta and Aiken County, South Carolina. Augusta’s current population is about 200,000. Neighboring Columbia County is home to about 100,000. Along with several other Georgia and South Carolina counties the region is known as the Central Savannah River Area, commonly referred to as the CSRA and is home to approximately half a million people. Augusta is Georgia’s second oldest and second largest city, founded during the British colonial period as a trading outpost.

How We Started
Augusta has a rich history dating as far back as the early 1700s. The settlement was established in 1736 by British General James Oglethorpe, and named in honor of the bride of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales. Built on the flat slopes of the Savannah River, in the area now known as Summerville, Augusta was also home to many neighboring tribes of Creek and Cherokee Indians. A pivotal site during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, Augusta also boasts the only structure ever built by the Confederate States of America, the site of the old Confederate Powderworks.

With the construction of the Augusta Canal in 1847, Augusta became the second largest inland cotton market in the world during the cotton boom. Augusta has nine neighborhoods on the National Register of Historic Places, and several historic monuments and cemeteries.

Significant Structures
Augusta served as the state capital of Georgia from 1785 until 1795, and has many historically significant homes and buildings, such as the Cotton Exchange, established in 1872; the boyhood home of Woodrow Wilson (28th president of the United States); Ezekiel Harris House (1797); George Walton home (signer of the Declaration of Independence) and Springfield Baptist Church, the oldest African American church in America.

Augusta Today
In 1996 the City of Augusta consolidated with Richmond County to form Augusta-Richmond County. This consolidated governing body consists of a Mayor and 10 Augusta-Richmond County commissioners. Augusta-Richmond County is one of only three consolidated governments in Georgia.

Augusta is perhaps best known as home of the Masters Golf Tournament held the first full week in April. The area is also a center for medicine, manufacturing, and military.

-- This article is reprinted courtesy of AugustaGA.gov