City of Statesboro history

December 4, 1864, Statesboro, Georgia, is the first major town visited by the Right Wing of Sherman's Army in almost two weeks.

In 1874, nine years after the Civil War ended, a group of former slaves of the Riggs, Donaldson, Parrish, and Hall families founded the Willow Hill School to serve the area’s black children.

Proceeds of this tax were used to build a two-story wooden building, which served until the present courthouse was built in 1894.

Earliest known photograph of the Willow Hill School, circa 1900.

In 1903, Bulloch County was the largest sea island cotton-producing county in the world.

In 1908 Statesboro led the world in sales of long-staple Sea Island cotton, a specialty for the Low Country.

In 1928, the tobacco industry opened in Statesboro.

It was not until 1938 that the market had annual sales in excess of one million dollars

By 1953 more than 20 million pounds of tobacco passed through warehouses in Statesboro, which was then the largest market in the “bright Tobacco Belt” spanning Georgia and Florida.

Veterans Memorial Parkway is a perimeter road that encircles most of Statesboro, opened in 1994.

Statesboro has grown 45.7% since the 2000.

The average residential sales price in 2004 was approximately $125,000.

The 2005 median income per household for Statesboro was $33,966 and for Bulloch County it was $21,678.

In 2017, Statesboro was selected in the top 3 of the national America’s Best Communities competition and was named one of nine Georgia “live, work, play” cities by the Georgia Municipal Association.