| Fayetteville, Georgia | |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Motto: | "No limits on imagination" |
| Seal Size: | 90px |
| Image Blank Emblem: | FayettevilleGAlogo1.png |
| Blank Emblem Type: | Logo |
| Blank Emblem Size: | 87px |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Georgia |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Fayette |
| Government Type: | Council/Manager |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Ed Johnson |
| Leader Title1: | City Manager |
| Leader Name1: | Ray Gibson |
| Established Title: | Established |
| Established Date: | March 28, 1822 |
| Established Title2: | Incorporated (town) |
| Established Date2: | 1823 |
| Established Title3: | Incorporated (city) |
| Established Date3: | 1888 |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 34.14 |
| Area Land Km2: | 33.58 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.56 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 13.18 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 12.96 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.22 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 18957 |
| Population Density Km2: | 564.60 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 1462.28 |
| Timezone: | Eastern (EST) |
| Utc Offset: | -5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -4 |
| Coordinates: | 33.4478°N -84.4617°W |
| Elevation M: | 313.9 |
| Elevation Ft: | 1030 |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP codes |
| Postal Code: | 30214-30215 |
| Area Code: | 770 404, 678 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 13-28968[2] |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 0314089[3] |
Fayetteville (; locally) is a city in and the county seat of Fayette County, Georgia, United States.[4] As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 18,957,[5] up from 15,945 at the 2010 census. Fayetteville is located south of downtown Atlanta.[6]
Fayetteville was founded in 1822 as the seat of the newly formed Fayette County, organized by European Americans from territory ceded by force the Creek people under a treaty with the United States during the early period of Indian removal from the Southeast. Both city and county were named in honor of the Revolutionary War hero the French Marquis de Lafayette.[7] Fayetteville was incorporated as a town in 1823 and as a city in 1902.[8]
The area was developed for cotton plantations, with labor provided by enslaved African Americans, who for more than a century comprised the majority of the county's population. Fayetteville became the trading town for the agricultural area.
In the first half of the 20th century, as agriculture became more mechanized, many African-American workers left the area in the Great Migration to northern and midwestern industrial cities, which had more jobs and offered less oppressive social conditions.
A reverse migration has brought new residents to the South, and the city of Fayetteville has grown markedly since 1980, as has the county. The city's population increased from 2715 in 1980 to 18,957 in 2020.[9]
| White (non-Hispanic) | 7,342 | 38.5% | |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 8,481 | 44.06% | |
| Native American | 52 | 0.15% | |
| Asian | 1,154 | 6.06% | |
| Pacific Islander | 9 | 0.01% | |
| Other/mixed | 614 | 5.12% | |
| Hispanic or Latino | 1,339 | 7.06% |
The city has a mayor-council form of elected government. Five council members are elected at-large, in non-partisan post, and the mayor is elected at-large in a non-partisan race.
In 2015 Ed Johnson was elected mayor, the first African American to serve in the position. The retired US Naval Commander and pastor of Fayette County's oldest black church is described as a consensus builder. In 2011 Johnson was elected as the first black member of the city council after having served three terms as president of the local chapter of the NAACP.[11] [12]
Johnson was re-elected in 2019.[13]
The city is served by the Fayette County Board of Education.[14]
In 2016, a soundstage at Pinewood Studios was open for educational use by the Georgia Film Academy. In late 2020, the Georgia Film Academy partnered with Trilith and the University of Georgia to launch its Master of Fine Arts film program; students would work and live in Trilith during their second year. Trilith also has a small K-12 school called the Forest School.
Georgia Military College has a campus in Fayetteville.
The Fayette County Courthouse, built in 1825 four years after the county and town's founding, is the oldest surviving courthouse in Georgia. It is located in the center of the Fayetteville town square. Since the construction of a new courthouse, the 1825 building has been adapted for use as the local welcome center. It holds offices for Fayetteville Main Street and the Fayette County Development Authority.
The Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House was built in 1855 by John Stiles Holliday, uncle of the western gambler John Henry "Doc" Holliday.
The Margaret Mitchell Library, built in 1948 and named in honor of the author, serves as the headquarters of the Fayette County Historical Society. Among its holdings are Civil War and genealogical records.
The residence formally occupied by deceased professional wrestler Chris Benoit and his nuclear family until June 2007, within which a high-profile double-murder and suicide tragedy occurred, is located in Fayetteville.
Trilith Studios, then Pinewood Atlanta Studios, opened here in 2014; it was a joint venture between British company Pinewood Group and River's Rock LLC, an independently managed trust of the Cathy family, founders of the Chick-fil-A fast-food chain. In 2020 River's Rock bought out Pinewood's share of the studio.[15] It is the largest film and television production studio in the United States outside the state of California. The studio has produced many large budget films, including several in the Marvel Cinematic Universe such as , , and Black Panther.[16]
In 2016, the Pinewood Forest mixed-use complex was launched. Located across the street from the studio, it features homes along with plans for "a movie theater, restaurants, boutique hotels, retail and office space", built using environmentally friendly building materials. In 2020, when the studio was renamed Trilith Studios, Pinewood Forest was renamed the Town at Trilith. In April 2021, Atlanta magazine ranked the community ninth in their top ten metro Atlanta vibrant city centers list; the community was also the newest featured on the list.