Dublin, Georgia

Dublin is a city and county seat of Laurens County, Georgia, United States. The population was 16,074 at the 2020 census.
The City of Dublin, Georgia was incorporated by the Georgia General Assembly on December 9, 1812, and made the county seat of Laurens County, Georgia. The original postmaster, Jonathan Sawyer, named the town Dublin after the capital of his Irish homeland, Dublin, Ireland.
Dublin, according to a historical marker at the town's main Oconee River bridge, was one of the last encampments at which Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his family stayed before being captured by Union forces in May 1865.
Between 1880 and 1910, five railroads connected through Dublin and two bridges were built over the Oconee River. This infrastructure allowed the town to become a major cotton trading and export center for central Georgia. By the early 1920s, however, the boll weevil infestation led to successive cotton crop failures, causing economic collapse and population loss.
On April 17, 1944, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his first public speech, "The Negro and the Constitution" at First African Baptist Church in Dublin.
Dublin is located in north-central Laurens County. The town, named such because the Middle Georgia Piedmont reminded Irish settlers of terrain in their native country, was founded on the Oconee River, which starts in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia before combining with the Ocmulgee River to form the Altamaha, a river which then proceeds to its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. The Oconee forms the eastern boundary of Dublin, separating it from the city of East Dublin.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 16.0 square miles (41.5 km), of which 15.9 square miles (41.2 km) are land and 0.09 square miles (0.24 km), or 0.59%, are water.
The city is located in the central part of the state along Interstate 16. Access to the city can be found from exits 49, 51, 54, and 58. Via I-16, Savannah is 117 miles (188 km) east, and Macon is 53 miles (85 km) northwest. US routes 80, 319, and 441 also run through the city. US 441 connects the city to Milledgeville, 47 miles (76 km) northwest, and McRae–Helena, 35 miles (56 km) south. Numerous state and local highways also run through the city.
Dublin has two historic districts designated by the National Register of Historic Places: the Dublin Commercial Historic District and the Stubbs Park–Stonewall Street Historic District. The Dublin Commercial Historic District consists of the original downtown commercial core, including the earliest extant building in the district: the Hicks Building, dating to 1893. The historic district contains 78 contributing properties, including the Dublin Carnegie Library First National Bank Building, and the former United States Post Office building. Structures within the district represent a wide range of architectural styles, including Colonial Revival, Neoclassical, Commercial, and Art Deco.
The Stubbs Park-Stonewall Street Historic District is located west of Dublin's central business district. The district contains 470 contributing properties, most of which are residential homes constructed between the late 1910s to the early 1940s. The predominant architectural styles of the area consist of Craftsman, Gothic Revival, Folk Victorian, and Georgian Cottage. In addition to historic residences, the district contains properties including historic churches, historic cemeteries, and Dublin's first public park, Stubbs Park.
As of the 2020 census, there were 16,074 people, 6,459 households, and 3,944 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,009.4 inhabitants per square mile (389.7/km). There were 7,224 housing units.
Dublin is the principal city of the Dublin micropolitan statistical area, a micropolitan area that covers Johnson and Laurens counties, and had a combined population of 58,759 at the 2020 census.
Dublin's city government is made up of a mayor and a city council composed of seven council members. Four of the council members represent wards, or districts, within the city boundaries; the remaining three members are considered council members at large, representing the entire city as legislative members.
Dublin was chosen as a City of Excellence by the Georgia Municipal Association and Georgia Trend magazine in 2000. This distinction recognized Dublin as one of the ten best managed and most livable cities in Georgia when evaluated on areas like public safety, cultural activities, fiscal management, and downtown viability.
In 2005, Dublin was designated as a "Signature Community" by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Dublin was also recognized by the American Association of Retirement Communities (AARC) as a Seal of Approval Community in 2009.
The United States Postal Service operates the Dublin Post Office and the Court Square Station in Dublin.
The Carl Vinson Veterans Administration Medical Center is located in Dublin. It was originally commissioned as Naval Hospital Dublin on January 22, 1945, as an ideal location for convalescence from rheumatic fever. As such it was the site of the commissioning of Naval Medical Research Unit Four on May 31, 1946, to study the disease. The Navy transferred the hospital to the Veterans Affairs Department in November 1947, and it was subsequently named for congressman Carl Vinson who was responsible for getting it built in Dublin. Today, the medical center provides a range of services to veterans in Middle and South Georgia, including primary care, mental health, ambulatory and urgent care, optometry, women's health, and extended care. The medical center features a 340 operating-bed facility and has approximately 1,100 employees.
Dublin's Laurens County Library is known for its genealogy department, with archives and records going back two hundred years.
Theatre Dublin, originally known as the Martin Theater, was constructed in 1934 in Dublin's Historic Downtown Commercial District. The theatre features Art Deco architectural design, with flat symmetrical wall surfacing and horizontal bands, in addition to an overhanging marquee and neon sign.
Since its renovation in 1996, Theatre Dublin has served as a performing arts center for Dublin-Laurens County and surrounding areas. The theatre houses a regular variety of events and performances, including musical artists, plays and performances, orchestras, concerts, and showings of both classical and contemporary films.
The Dublin Carnegie Library was built in 1904 by a grant from Andrew Carnegie. It is located in Dublin's Historic Downtown Commercial District, and the Dublin Carnegie is one of only three surviving Carnegie Libraries in the state of Georgia listed on the National Register of Historic Places and still in its original form. The Dublin Carnegie served as public library for the region until the 1960s, at which point the city and county constructed a larger public library. In the late 1970s, the Dublin Carnegie Library was structurally stabilized and maintained by the Dublin-Laurens Historical Society. For more than 35 years, the building served as the home of the Dublin-Laurens Museum.
In 2014, the Dublin-Laurens Museum moved to a new location, leaving the Dublin Carnegie Library unoccupied. The Dublin Downtown Development Authority then renovated the building to its historic stature, restoring many of the building's original features. Since the renovation by the DDA in 2014, the Dublin Carnegie has served as an event space and fine arts gallery, featuring local and statewide art displays.
The Dublin City School District, which includes areas in the Dublin city limits, holds pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of two elementary schools, a middle school, a high school, and an alternative school. The district has approximately 2,400 students as of 2016.
The Laurens County School District holds grades pre-school to grade twelve, and serves areas outside of the Dublin city limits.
Dublin is known for its St Patrick's festival which takes place annually during March.
Dublin is home to several scholarship pageants, which are largely popular in the southern United States:
Dublin, the Oconee River, and Laurens County are mentioned in the opening page of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake: "nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselves to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time." (Joyce explained in a letter: "Dublin, Laurens Co, Georgia, founded by a Dubliner, Peter Sawyer, on r. Oconee. Its motto: Doubling all the time.")