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Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont » Southern Tidewater » Surry County » Surry Courthouse Complex

Surry Courthouse Complex

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1923, George R. Berryman. VA 10, Surry

Surry County was formed in 1652, and the county seat moved frequently. This is the seventh county courthouse and the fourth to be located at the crossroads town of Surry, originally known as Scuffletown. The architect, George R. Berryman, a Surry native and graduate of George Washington University's School of Architecture, had a practice in Wilson, North Carolina. He had designed the predecessor (1907) courthouse, which burned, and this is a near duplicate except for the deletion of the cupola. Stylistically it is Jeffersonian Revival: red brick with white trim and a giant Ionic portico and full entablature recalling Pavilion V at the University of Virginia. The interior of the main courtroom, unchanged since the 1920s, includes the original judge's bench, placed within a recessed arch that constitutes the bar, and jury seating. Also on the courthouse grounds are an 1825 clerk's office   and general district court building. A 1909 Confederate memorial stood in front of the courthouse until August 2020, when it was removed.  

Writing Credits

Author: 
Richard Guy Wilson et al.
Updated By: 
Catherine Boland Erkkila (2021)
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Data

Timeline

  • 1923

    Built

What's Nearby

Smith's Fort Plantation
Chippokes Plantation State Park
Bacon's Castle
Jamestown Island

Citation

Richard Guy Wilson et al., "Surry Courthouse Complex", [Surry, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-01-ST20.

Print Source

Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont, Richard Guy Wilson and contributors. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, 475-476.

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