Lavonia is a small city in northeast Georgia that straddles Franklin and Hart Counties, near the point where Interstate 85 crosses the Georgia–South Carolina state line. Its population of about 2,100 makes it one of the larger municipalities in this lightly populated corner of the state, and its position along a major interstate corridor gives it a profile far larger than its size suggests. The city was founded in 1878, when the Elberton Air-Line Railroad established a station and depot here; the town site was organized around the rail line and a public square, and the community was named for Lavonia Jones, the wife of one of the railroad's investors. For most of its history, Lavonia functioned as a farm-market and railroad town serving the surrounding countryside. Today its identity is closely tied to Lake Hartwell, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir that stretches along the Savannah, Tugaloo, and Seneca Rivers. The lake's tens of thousands of acres of water and hundreds of miles of shoreline begin at Lavonia's doorstep, drawing boaters, anglers, and campers and making the city a gateway for recreation across the upper Savannah basin. Tugaloo State Park, situated on a Lake Hartwell peninsula just outside town, is one of the region's most-visited state parks. The city's compact downtown retains the bones of its railroad founding, with storefronts clustered near the old depot and a historic district that reflects its late-nineteenth-century origins. Around it, residential streets and newer lake-oriented subdivisions spread toward the water. Public schools fall within the Franklin County School District, with Lavonia Elementary School serving the city's youngest students, while the Hart County portion of the city falls under Hart County Schools. Lavonia offers a combination of small-town pace, highway convenience, and direct access to one of the region's largest lakes—an appeal that draws both year-round residents and seasonal lake users.