Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1803 as the county seat and was officially incorporated in 1854. Early descriptions portray a wide main street lined with rows of cherry trees and noted for its beauty, shade, and distinction, while several colonial-style houses suggested refinement among the town’s earlier inhabitants. Many homes and businesses stood along the edge of the public street, and visitors could expect to find a courthouse in the center of town along with a blacksmith shop, tan yard, jail, churches, offices, and shops. In 1904 Ashe County built a new courthouse, demolishing the older 1800s courthouse to make room for it. The 1904 building, designed by the Charlotte firm Wheeler and Runge, served not only as a courthouse but also as a community center, with its upstairs courtroom hosting spelling bees, plays, political meetings, concerts, and, from the 1930s into the 1950s, performances by early country music stars including the Carter Family, Monroe Brothers, and Uncle Dave Macon. Over the years, road expansion removed much of Jefferson’s famed cherry trees, many historic homes were lost to time or new construction, and the county moved into a new courthouse in 2000.