Covington: Georgia's Hollywood Stand-In

Covington was incorporated in eighteen twenty-two, platted at the convergence of the Yellow and Alcovy Rivers in Newton County. The town was first called Newtonsboro, then renamed within months for Leonard Covington, a general killed at the Battle of Chrysler's Farm in the War of eighteen twelve. Several of its antebellum homes survived Sherman's March to the Sea in eighteen sixty-four. That intact historic fabric made Covington irresistible to Hollywood: the town has since served as a backdrop for dozens of films and television productions, among them In the Heat of the Night, The Dukes of Hazzard, and The Vampire Diaries, a reputation that has been called the Hollywood of the South.