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Old Pulaski County Courthouse and Museum

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1896, Chamberlin and Co.; 1911 cupola; 1992 interior rebuilt, Thomas A. Douthat Jr. 52 W. Main St.
  • (Photograph by Tim Buchman)
  • (Virginia Department of Historic Resources)

This Romanesque Revival courthouse designed by a Knoxville, Tennessee, firm represented a bold departure from the usual red brick classicism of Virginia's courthouses. Set on a generous-sized lot, the courthouse grounds are entered through a three-part stone archway that originally served as the entrance to the Pulaski County exhibit at the Jamestown Exposition of 1907. The two-story courthouse of rough-faced, squared sandstone from nearby Peak Creek has a symmetrical facade below a hipped roof. Its prominent domed cupola with classical motifs, added in 1911, features a belfry, town clock, and lantern that are visible from afar. Marking each of the building's corners are projecting pyramidal-roofed square towers echoed in the smaller two-and-a-half-story towers flanking the recessed round-arched entrance to the courthouse. After a disastrous fire in 1989, the interior of the courthouse was rebuilt to serve as county offices and a museum.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
Coordinator: 
Anne Carter Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Pulaski County Courthouse
Commercial Building (Appalachian Power Company Building)
Commercial Building (Pulaski National Bank)
Christ Episcopal Church
U.S. Post Office

Citation

Anne Carter Lee, "Old Pulaski County Courthouse and Museum", [Pulaski, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-PU02.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Virginia vol 2

Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 444-444.

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