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Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside & Southwest » Shenandoah Valley » Augusta County » Staunton (Independent City) and Vicinity » Augusta County Courthouse

Augusta County Courthouse

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1901, T. J. Collins and Son; 1939 rear addition. 1 E. Johnson St.
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (HABS; Photograph by Renee Bieretz)
  • (Virginia Department of Historic Resources)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)

Although he made a nod to tradition by retaining the three-part massing of Augusta's earlier courthouse of 1835 by Thomas R. Blackburn, Collins gave this courthouse an exuberant Beaux-Arts Classical facade. Above a rough limestone base, the red pressed-brick building has a large yellow brick portico with Composite capitals on columns set on high plinths, pilasters framing each bay of the projecting wings, and a rich entablature of pressed metal. Ornate terra-cotta panels adorn the building's eight pediments. A statue of Justice caps the tall central dome that crowns the courthouse. Much of the interior fabric is intact. The first floor of the central pavilion contains a record room. Halls separate it from offices in the wings. The building houses legal records dating from the colonial era and one of the boundary stones that marked the extent of Sir William Beverley's 1736 patent lands.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee

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