The Backroads Traveler: Watkinsville, Georgia

The Eagle Tavern has been a Watkinsville landmark for 225 years.

Entering Watkinsville from the northwest via Main Street, on your left, across from the courthouse, is the Eagle Tavern, at 26 North Main Street. Built around 1801, it was an important inn, tavern, and stagecoach stop on the route between Milledgeville and Athens. The tavern also has a rich history of ghostly tales and is considered by some to be the most haunted building in North Georgia.

Today, the Eagle Tavern is a history museum depicting frontier life in Georgia 200 years ago. It is open for tours Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

The Visitor Information Center is across from the Eagle Tavern at 21 North Main Street. They will be happy to provide guidance about tours and points of interest. Watkinsville, probably because of its proximity to  Athens and the University of Georgia, is also home to a very active and extensive art colony, with numerous shops and galleries awaiting your exploration.

 The Old Oconee County jail still stands in Watkinsville.

 Also across from the Eagle Tavern, behind the courthouse, is the old Oconee County jail, which in 1905 was the scene of one of the worst incidents of racial violence in Georgia's history, when a mob took nine men, eight black and one white, out of the jail, dragged them outside the town, and lynched them, supposedly for raping a white woman.

The Haygood House, built around 1827.

 Going south, the Haygood House, circa 1827, at 25 South Main Street, was the birthplace of two prominent Methodists: Bishop Atticus G. Haygood, born in 1839, was president of Emory College from 1875 to 1884, and his sister Laura Haygood, born in 1845, was one of the first Christian missionaries to China.

The Elder Mill Covered Bridge.

From the Haygood House, turn left and go back to GA 15. Turn right and go about four miles to Elder Mill Road. Turn right again and go 0.8 miles to  Elder Mill Covered Bridge, 

Originally built by Nathaniel Richardson over Calls Creek on the Watkinsville-Athens Road in 1897, the bridge was moved by wagon (don't ask me how they did that) to its present location over Rose Creek in 1924. It uses the sturdy Town lattice construction, with heavy planks fastened together with wooden pegs. The 99-foot-long bridge is in daily use, although weight-limited, and is one of very few covered bridges in Georgia to carry traffic without underlying steel support beams. 

This post was adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia. All photos were made with a Canon EOS 6D digital camera and the Canon EF 28-105mm lens

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.  

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

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