The Elisha Winn House is located at 908 Dacula Road near Dacula, Georgia, United States, 1.9 miles (3.1 km) north of Dacula city limits. The house, currently in Gwinnett County, was built in 1812, six years before the county was established. In 1809, Elisha Winn, Roger Pugh, and Elijah Pugh purchased 7,300 acres (30 km2) on the Apalachee River from a Jackson County tax collector. On December 15, 1818, the Elisha Winn house and the property became part of Gwinnett County. The house is the oldest surviving building in Gwinnett and probably the oldest building in metropolitan Atlanta.
Being part of the newly formed county of Gwinnett, the Elisha Winn house gained historical significance. This is where much of the planning for the new county took place. Gwinnett county government functions were first carried out in the house and the backyard. Early sessions of the Superior Court (1819–1822), serving several other counties including Gwinnett County, were held in Winn's barn on the third floor. The first enslaved person sold in Gwinnett county was auctioned here, a six-year-old boy named Isham.[2] The Inferior Court and the first county elections were held in the parlor of the Elisha Winn House. In 1819, Gwinnett County had a full slate of elected county officials. The first Gwinnett County jail was built on the property, the jail was a small barn in the backyard, which was demolished in August 1933. County executions also took place at this location, the first being Jack Winn, an enslaved person owned by Elisha Winn, who was tried and hung on property.[3] Also, the first five judges of the Inferior Court, including Elisha Winn, were commissioned in February 1819. In 1820, the newly created Lawrenceville, became the permanent setting for the seat of government. A wooded courthouse was erected and the county government moved there. The Winn family moved to Lawrenceville in 1824 where Elisha Winn had a seat in the county government in the permanent setting of the Gwinnett County Court house.
Elisha Winn was born in Lunenburg, Virginia in 1777, and died on March 4, 1842, and is buried in the old Lawrenceville cemetery. He was married to Judith Cochran and had 13 children. From 1815 to 1817, Winn was Justice of Inferior Court in Jackson County. From 1820 to 1825, he was an Inferior Court judge for Gwinnett County. He was a state senator for Georgia from Gwinnett during the 1830, 1833, and 1837 sessions.
There is an annual Elisha Winn fair on the first weekend of every October. The fair is sponsored by the Gwinnett Historical Society as a fundraiser to keep the house in good shape. October 6 and 7, 2012 will be the 34th annual fair and the 200th anniversary of the house.
The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a Georgia Historic Marker is located at the site.
