The second courthouse of Russell County is one of the earliest public buildings in Southwest Virginia. The simple stone structure was built in 1799 to replace the first courthouse, a log building destroyed by fire. It served the county until the county seat was moved to Lebanon in 1818. The courthouse was then acquired by the Dickenson family who made it the wing of a brick farmhouse. Despite its conversion to residential use, much of the building’s original interior fabric was preserved. In recent years the Old Russell County Courthouse property was again acquired by the county, and both the stone section and the brick addition have undergone a careful restoration for development into a museum. The original surrounding county seat town of Dickensonville has all but disappeared.