After Avery County was formed in 1911, work began on the courthouse and the present day Avery County Historical Museum in 1912. The Avery County Courthouse is two-story with a beautiful crowning cupola, and kept to the traditional Neoclassical Revival style of other North Carolina Courthouses, and is located in the county seat, Newland.

The town of Newland, county seat of Avery County, at an elevation of 3,589', is the highest county seat in eastern America. Newland is located in the mountains of western North Carolina and is known for the many Christmas Tree farms, which surround this small town.

Newland was incorporated in 1913, as the county seat of the newly formed Avery County. Its original name was “Old Fields of Toe” because it is located in a broad flat valley and is at the headwaters of the Toe River.

Newland was a mustering place for Civil War troops. Toe is short for “Estatoe,” an Indian chief’s daughter who drowned herself in the river in despair because she could not marry a brave from another tribe.