Our city has only been known as Richmond Hill since 1941 when a group of local residents petitioned the US Post Office to change the name from Ways Station. The name Ways Station originated after the Savannah, Albany & Gulf Railroad was built across the Ogeechee River in 1856. A train depot was built, which came to be known as "Ways No. 1 ½" for William J. Way, the first station master and a local rice planter on property through which the railroad passed. A settlement known as Crossroads emerged in the section between the railroad tracks and the intersection of the Savannah-Darien Stage Road (present US Highway 17) and the Bryan Neck Road (present State Highway 144). Because of the convenience of its location, Crossroads had been selected as an early county seat by the Bryan County justices on February 1, 1797.

Bryan County was created in 1793, from portions of Chatham and Effingham counties, by two acts of the Georgia legislature. The first act appointed commissioners and gave them the authority to survey the town of Hardwicke and build a courthouse, a prison, and a school. Although Hardwicke was envisioned to become the seat of government, there is no evidence to suggest the proposed buildings were ever erected. This wasn't the first time Hardwicke was recognized as a desirable location for a town site. John Reynolds, the first royal governor of the Georgia colony, visited the site in 1755. He was interested in moving the capital from Savannah and set his sights on "The Neck of Land called the Elbow on the Great Ogeechee River." Although it had been named George-Town only one year prior by the colonial authorities, Reynolds changed the name to Hardwicke, in honor of his relative, Philip Yorke, Lord Hardwicke, Lord High Chancellor of England. After his inspection visit, he wrote in a report to the Board of Trade:

Hardwicke has a charming situation, the winding of the river making it a peninsula; and it is the only place fit for the capital. There are many objections to this town of Savannah being so, besides its being situated at the extremity of the Province, the shoalness [shallowness] of the river, and the great height of the land, which is very inconvenient in the loading and unloading of ships.

Many lots have already been granted in Hardwicke, but only one house is yet built there; and as the Province is unable to be at the expense of erecting the necessary public buildings, and the annual sums of 500 (pounds) allowed for erecting and repairing public works… being insufficient… I am in hopes your Lordships will get a sufficient sum allowed for erecting a Court-House, an Assembly-House, a Church, and a Prison at Hardwicke; which will be such an encouragement to private people to build there as will soon make it for the seat of government to the universal benefit of the Province.

Before his plan could come to fruition, Reynolds was recalled to England in 1757. The second royal governor of the colony of Georgia, Henry Ellis, continued efforts to move the colonial seat from Savannah to Hardwicke; however, he did not obtain the necessary funding from the Board of Trade. By 1761, the third royal governor, James Wright, did not share his predecessors' desire to move the capital from Savannah. The potential for Hardwicke to become a major seaport was never realized.

A second act of the General Assembly in 1793 provided for the actual creation of Bryan County, formerly St. Philip Parish. The colony had been divided into eight parishes in an effort to establish the Anglican Church as Georgia's official church.

Bryan County was named in honor of Revolutionary patriot, Jonathan Bryan. Born in South Carolina, Bryan made his first visit to Georgia in 1733 when he accompanied James Oglethorpe and a group of settlers from England to select a town site, Savannah. In 1752, Bryan moved to his new Georgia plantation, Walnut Hill, and within a few years had become one of the largest landholders in the county. Bryan supported independence during the Revolutionary War, serving on the Council of Safety and personally financing Continental troops in Georgia. In 1779 he was captured and held for two years on British prison ships. Savannah's Bryan Street recognizes his family's role in the founding of the Georgia colony.

Henry Ford had a hand in the renaming of the community we now know as Richmond Hill. He and Clara Ford began purchasing land and making annual visits to Ways Station during the 1920s, eventually owning upwards of 85,000 acres. In 1936, the Fords began construction on their new winter home, Richmond. The Fords chose the site of the old Richmond rice plantation of the Clay family, which had been burned during the Civil War, to build their Southern home. It is a beautiful location with an oak allee leading to a bluff overlooking the Ogeechee River and the antebellum rice fields.

Once his winter home, Richmond, was complete, Ford changed the name of his entire 85,000 acres from Ford Farms to Richmond Hill Plantation. He also suggested that the name of the town Ways Station be changed. Many residents wanted to honor Henry Ford's contributions to the people of Ways Station. Mr. Ford objected to their original plan to change the name to Ford Town or Fordville or the like. Being a somewhat modest person, he did not care for his own name to be used to rename the town. The name of Ford's local residence was suggested and after some negotiation, the name of Ways Station was officially changed to Richmond Hill on May 1, 1941.