This community is one of the best preserved of Virginia's rural courthouse towns. Although the county was formed in 1661, the county seat did not locate here until 1741. The village's focus remains the Lancaster County Courthouse (1860–1861, Edward O. Robinson, builder; 1937, addition; later modifications), which originally was a plain two-story brick structure resembling a meetinghouse. A narrow vestibule leads to a large courtroom. As did many Virginia courthouses during and after the Colonial–Jeffersonian Revival of the 1930s, the Lancaster courthouse received an elongated Roman Doric portico and a belfry. In front stands—reputedly—the earliest Confederate monument (not in a cemetery) in the state, erected by the Ladies Memorial Association in 1872. It is a marble obelisk, inscribed with names and bearing a small, sculpted plaque. Past the courthouse complex are the brick clerk's office (c. 1797) and the jail (c. 1870), which has been restored as a museum. For aficionados of Washington trivia, the Mary Ball Washington Museum (c. 1798) is across from the courthouse. Originally known as Lancaster House, this five-bay I-house dates from after the death of Washington's mother, who was born in the area. East .1 mile and across Virginia 3 is Trinity Episcopal Church (1884, V. Montgomery; 1954, 1970, additions), a board-and-batten rural Gothic structure, rather barnlike in appearance, erected by an architect-builder from Essex County. On the interior is an exposed X roof truss. Originally, the chancel had a stained glass window, which has been removed.