South Gwinnett · Gwinnett County
Grayson History
This is the history section of the Grayson guide: how a Gwinnett County farming settlement called Trip became an incorporated city that was briefly Berkeley and finally Grayson, a name borrowed from a Texas county by way of a letter home.
The settlement that became Grayson grew up around a store and home built in about 1880 by James Patterson McConnell, the founder of what became Grayson, who bought 80 acres from his uncle Stephen Billue near what is now the city center. McConnell became the postmaster of Trip in 1881, and the community grew as the hub of a farming district.
In 1901 the community was incorporated as Berkeley, then renamed Grayson in 1902. The name came from Grayson County, Texas, after the first mayor's wife, visiting relatives there, sent a letter home suggesting it. The city has kept the name ever since.
The founding story
A store, a post office, and a name borrowed from Texas
Read this first
The short version: James Patterson McConnell built the store in the 1880s, the community was called Trip, the General Assembly incorporated it as Berkeley in 1901, and the name Grayson won in 1902 because Ada McConnell Jacobs, the first mayor's wife, wrote home from Grayson County, Texas.
The city's earliest roots reach further back. The settlement grew around the crossroads near what is now the center of Grayson, and the early families of the district included the McConnells, Jacobs, Fords, and others who farmed the south Gwinnett land. The 1820s-era Haynes Creek Primitive Baptist Church, constituted in 1826, is the oldest thread in the area's recorded history.
McConnell served as the city's first mayor after incorporation. The name games happened because Georgia already had a Berkeley and a Graymont, so the first choices were taken; the Grayson name from the Texas letter finally stuck.
The three names
Trip was the farming community's informal name. Berkeley, proposed by John E. Jacobs while he was postmaster, was approved by the General Assembly on December 16, 1901. When the Post Office reported that another Berkeley already existed in Georgia, Jacobs tried Graymont, for the clear view of Stone Mountain, which was also taken.
The winning name came from Ada McConnell Jacobs, who was visiting relatives in Grayson County, Texas, and wrote to her husband suggesting Grayson. The city was reincorporated as Grayson, Georgia on December 17, 1902, with J.P. McConnell, W.P. Williams, J.S. Pate, A. Bennett, and W.J. Tribble serving as its first aldermen.
Grayson preserves this history at the Grayson Arts & History Center , the 1890 white-frame cottage at 2070 Rosebud Road that holds the Grayson History Preservation Society's collection.
The old ground
Congregations older than the city
Two congregations in the Grayson area predate the incorporated city by decades, and their names still mark the countryside. Chestnut Grove Baptist Church was organized in 1850, and Grayson Methodist Church dates to 1884. Their histories run through the same farming district that McConnell's store served.
Today's congregations, the full verified list, live on the churches page .
The modern era
A Main Street city in a growing county
The modern Grayson story is the story of a small city choosing to stay small on purpose. The downtown runs along the Grayson Parkway, the Main Street Grayson program keeps the commercial district active, and the Railyard, a mixed-use historic center built around the old post office site, anchors the modern square with shops, restaurants, and a village green.
Around the downtown, Gwinnett County grew around it: the Grayson cluster schools serve the city's neighborhoods, two of the county's largest parks, Tribble Mill and Bay Creek, sit minutes from the city line, and Lawrenceville's county services and hospital corridor are a short drive away. The city that started as a farm crossroads is now the small-city center of south Gwinnett.
The rest of the Grayson guideHistory stays history; the working guides cover what is open and worth knowing today. If you are weighing a move around Grayson, book a call with Rob Dietrich, the REALTOR® behind this guide.
An editorial guide, not a listings site. Updated September 14, 2026. Real-estate guidance on this page is provided by Rob Dietrich, REALTOR® with eXp Realty, LLC.