Fayette County was created in 1824. The town of Fayette, once known as Frog Level because it stood in swampland and was named for the incessant croaking of bullfrogs, took shape after the Georgia Pacific Railroad was routed through the swamp in 1883 when leaders of nearby Fayetteville, one mile north, refused to pay $1,000 to engineer S.G. James to run the railroad through their town. After the railroad was completed in 1887, a small wooden shack was established as the first post office to receive mail from the train. The community's name changed from Frog Level to Latona, named for the postmaster's wife, and was eventually voted to be called Fayette. The town had three courthouses destroyed by fire in 1854, 1866, and 1911, and the 1911 fire destroyed everything downtown except the depot. That depot was restored in 2002 and now serves as the Historical Society Museum, whose centerpiece is a flag carried by Judge Holland Bell during the Civil War. The Fayette County Civic Center and Art Museum began as Fayette Elementary School in 1931 and, after renovation in 1980, came to hold more than 3,700 pieces of art, including major works by folk artists Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Los Wilson, and Ben Perkins. The Fayette County Memorial Library was started by a group of women in 1922. The old post office, completed in 1936, was remodeled to house City Hall. The First National Bank, now Regions, began in 1900 and was purchased in 1909 by the Grimsley family, while Citizens Bank opened in 1911 under the Robertson family, who still own and manage it. The Public Health Department building stands on the site of the former McNeese-Robertson Medical Clinic, which in 1943 received accreditation from the American Hospital Association and was noted as the smallest hospital to receive that honor.