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Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont » The Peninsulas » Middlesex County » Middlesex County Courthouse

Middlesex County Courthouse

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1851–1853, John P. Hill, builder. Additions. U. S. 17, Saluda
  • Middlesex County Courthouse (Virginia Division of Historic Resources)

The county seat of Middlesex County (created c. 1669) moved here from Urbanna in 1851. The county justices selected a town hall–type plan that was then more than twenty years out of date. They paid $3,000 for the building. Recalling the courthouses of Jefferson's time and those of Fairfax (1799), Madison (c. 1830), and Caroline (c. 1830) counties, the structure has an arcade at ground level and jury rooms above the courtroom. The use of the Tuscan order for the cornice is a survival rather than a revival. Except for the thick treatment of the arches, the building looks like a work of 1820 rather than of the 1850s. An addition to the east (1966) mimics the original. The courthouse grounds contain the usual group of buildings, including the clerk's office (1875) and a Confederate monument (1910), put up by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Richard Guy Wilson et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Hewick Bed and Breakfast (Hewick, or Hewrick, House)
Wormeley Cottage
Urbanna Baptist Church
Lansdowne
Van Wagenen House

Citation

Richard Guy Wilson et al., "Middlesex County Courthouse", [, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-01-PE31.

Print Source

Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont, Richard Guy Wilson and contributors. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, 343-343.

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