Chesterfield has been the county seat since the county's founding in 1749. Its site, where five early roads came to an intersection, was selected because of its proximity to the center of the county. The former country town is now almost obliterated by the whirl of traffic on VA 10 and the vibrant stretch of suburban growth reaching out from Richmond. The former courthouse square appears to be dollhouse-scale compared to the gigantic new courthouse (CS1) and school complex that was built slightly to the west. Near the old courthouse, two Federal mansions, Magnolia Grange (CS3) and Castlewood (CS4), now without their early landscapes, are tucked in among so many Colonial Revival buildings that they, too, could almost pass for revival architecture.
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