Washington is a city in east-central Georgia and the seat of Wilkes County, a community so closely identified with its county that locals refer to the two together as Washington-Wilkes. The 2020 census counted about 3,800 residents, making it the largest town and the commercial, governmental, and cultural center of a rural county that was among the first areas of upland Georgia to be settled. The city's history runs deep. It grew from an eighteenth-century fort and became one of the region's early and prosperous county seats, and its wealth in the antebellum era is still visible in a remarkable collection of Greek Revival and other period homes. Washington's most famous historical episode came at the very end of the Civil War, when the Confederate cabinet held its final meeting in the city and voted to dissolve the government, effectively bringing the Confederacy to a close. That event, along with sites such as the Washington-Wilkes Historical Museum and Callaway Plantation, anchors the city's identity as a destination for heritage tourism. The economy reflects the surrounding countryside. Agriculture has long been Wilkes County's largest industry, and manufacturing and tourism built around the area's historic sites provide additional employment. The cotton economy that once made Washington prosperous declined sharply in the twentieth century, and the county's population, which peaked in the 1920s, has settled at a much smaller level, leaving Washington with the character of a preserved but quieter historic seat. For homebuyers, Washington offers an unusual concentration of antebellum architecture, a walkable historic core, and the services of a county seat, all in the gently rolling Piedmont of east-central Georgia. It appeals to those drawn to history, preservation, and small-town Southern life.