For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 06/16/1981
NRHP Listing Date 10/29/1981
NPS property number 81000638
This compact but sophisticated public building is an important component of Virginia’s well-known collection of Classical Revival courthouses. With its main floor set on a high basement, the porticoed building employs the format also employed for the Pittsylvania, Patrick, and the demolished Bedford County courthouses. It was completed in 1849 by John Wills. The courtroom, with its elaborate plasterwork and woodwork is among Virginia’s least-altered courtrooms of the period. Especially interesting is the aedicule above the judge’s bench framing the Masonic symbol of the all-seeing eye, a unique use of this motif in a Virginia courthouse. The decorative frame is plaster, but the eye itself is realistically executed in glass. Court functions have been transferred to a modern building and the old courthouse is being considered for alternative uses.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated April 4, 2018
