Warwick County Courthouses, also known as the Warwick County Courthouse and Clerk's Office, is a historic

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

and

clerk's office The Pittsylvania County Clerk's Office is a historic county clerk's office located at Chatham in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. It was built in 1812, and is a one-story, L-shaped brick structure. It housed the county clerk's office until 1853, ...

located in

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an Independent city (United States), independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the List of c ...

. The original county courthouse was located closer to the James River at Warwick Town near Denbigh Plantation, but it is no longer standing. The county moved its seat to the new location in 1810 and built a one-story, three-room, T-shaped plan Federal-style brick building. It has a slate-covered gable roof and exterior end chimneys, and it was later enlarged by a side and rear addition. As part of the

Peninsula Campaign The Peninsula campaign (also known as the Peninsular campaign) of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March to July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The oper ...

, on the afternoon of April 5, 1862,

IV Corps 4 Corps, 4th Corps, Fourth Corps, or IV Corps may refer to: France * 4th Army Corps (France) * IV Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * IV Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperi ...

under BG

Erasmus D. Keyes Erasmus Darwin Keyes (May 29, 1810 – October 14, 1895) was a businessman, banker, and military general, noted for leading the IV Corps of the Union Army of the Potomac during the first half of the American Civil War. Early life and career Keyes ...

reached and looted the Warwick County Courthouse. The area used as a camp and division headquarters thereafter. The observation balloon ''Constitution'' designed by

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe (August 20, 1832 – January 16, 1913), also known as Professor T. S. C. Lowe, was an American Civil War aeronaut, scientist and inventor, mostly self-educated in the fields of chemistry, meteorology, and a ...

was anchored at the courthouse for a time. The clerk’s office was burned on December 15, 1864, and the court minute books and loose records from 1787 to 1819 were destroyed. Other records sent to Richmond, Virginia for safekeeping during the civil war were lost in the fire there on April 3, 1865. The later courthouse was built in 1884 and is a two-story,

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

-style brick building. It has a rectangular plan and a shallow, metal-covered, hipped roof with three shallow cross gables. It features a square wood bell

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

that rises above the central projecting bay. In 1888, the county court relocated for a short period to an area in what is now downtown

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the fifth-most populous city in Virginia and 140th-most populous city i ...

. It was moved back to this location in 1896 when Newport News became an independent city. The buildings housed county offices until 1958, when

Warwick County, Virginia Warwick County was a county in Southeast Virginia that was created from Warwick River Shire, one of eight created in the Virginia Colony in 1634. Located on the Virginia Peninsula on the northern bank of the James River between Hampton Roads ...

was combined with the City of Newport News. an
''Accompanying two photos''
/ref> On the property was a Confederate monument for the

Warwick Beauregards The Warwick Beauregards was a volunteer infantry company of 80 members in the Confederate States Army organized by Dr. (Capt.) Humphrey Harwood Curtis Jr. of Endview Plantation in May 1861. The unit was mustered by Col. Benjamin Stoddert Ewel ...

, dedicated in May 1909. In August 2020, the City of

voted to remove the monument, and it was removed shortly thereafter. The Courthouses were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1988.

Courthouse area, 1880s-1950s

Directly across the street from the courthouse, Levin Smith built a 16-room hotel (''Smith's Hotel'') and James T. Garrow built a general store in 1883. The hotel would house lawyers and judges while court was in session. The hotel operated up till shortly after 1909, when proprietor Levin Smith died. Afterwards it became a private home. The general store was destroyed by fire in the mid 1950s and not rebuilt. The hotel building was torn down in 1985.

References

County courthouses in Virginia Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Government buildings completed in 1810 Federal architecture in Virginia Italianate architecture in Virginia Buildings and structures in Newport News, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Newport News, Virginia Brick buildings and structures in Virginia {{NewportNewsVA-NRHP-stub

Courthouse area, 1880s-1950s

See Also

References