The Genesis Monument
Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
“Genesis” of the city of Greensboro Approximate center of Guilford county as determined for the establishment of Greensborough as the county seat of Guilford county 1808
The Story
In 1808, the leaders of Guilford County went looking for a new, more central home for their courthouse, and commissioners settled on a spot near the county's geographic heart to lay out the town of Greensborough. The new county seat—later spelled Greensboro—was named in honor of Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene, whose forces had fought the nearby Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781. This monument marks that deliberately chosen center point, the surveyor's-eye 'genesis' from which the streets and squares of a future Piedmont city were measured out.
Why it matters
The careful placing of a county seat at a region's center was how order and commerce took root across the early American backcountry, and from this single surveyed point grew one of North Carolina's major cities.
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Related people
- · Nathanael Greene
Related events
- · Establishment of Greensborough as the county seat of Guilford County (1808)
Themes & tags
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