Warwick County Courthouses | |
![]() Warwick County Courthouse, April 2013 | |
![]() Interactive map showing the location of Warwick County Courthouse | |
Location | Old Courthouse Way, Newport News, Virginia |
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Coordinates | 37°7′47″N76°32′33″W / 37.12972°N 76.54250°W |
Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
Built | 1810 | , 1884, 1909
Architectural style | Italianate, Federal |
NRHP reference No. | 88002186 [1] |
VLR No. | 121-0001 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 3, 1988 |
Designated VLR | February 16, 1988 [2] |
Warwick County Courthouses, also known as the Warwick County Courthouse and Clerk's Office, is a historic courthouse and clerk's office located in Newport News, Virginia.
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, on the afternoon of April 5, 1862, IV Corps under BG Erasmus D. 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 was anchored at the courthouse for a time. [3] 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-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 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. 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 was combined with the City of Newport News. [4]
On the property was a Confederate monument for the Warwick Beauregards, dedicated in May 1909. In August 2020, the City of Newport News voted to remove the monument, and it was removed shortly thereafter. [5] [6] [7]
The Courthouses were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. [1]
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. [8] [9] The hotel building was torn down in 1985. [10]
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 in the United States. The city is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the northern shore of the James River to the river's mouth on the harbor of Hampton Roads.
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 and Jamestown, the area consisted primarily of farms and small unincorporated villages until the arrival of the Peninsula Extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1881 and development led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington.
Denbigh is a community in Newport News, Virginia. It was previously the County Seat of Warwick County, Virginia until the county became the independent city of Warwick, Virginia in 1952. Warwick and Newport News merged in 1958 to form the present-day city of Newport News.
The Knox County Courthouse is a historic building located at 300 Main Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1886, it served as Knox County's courthouse until the completion of the City-County Building in 1980, and continues to house offices for several county departments. John Sevier, Tennessee's first governor, is buried on the courthouse lawn. The courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its role in the county's political history.
Newport News has a long history dating back to the days of Jamestown, Virginia. The area which is now the city of Newport News has existed under different names and forms including Elizabeth Cittie, Warwick River Shire, Warwick County, Virginia, Warwick City, and the current independent city of Newport News.
Hidenwood is a neighborhood in the independent city of Newport News, Virginia which is located off Warwick Boulevard just west of the campus of Christopher Newport University (CNU).
A Mississippi Landmark is a building officially nominated by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and approved by each county's chancery clerk. The Mississippi Landmark designation is the highest form of recognition bestowed on properties by the state of Mississippi, and designated properties are protected from changes that may alter the property's historic character. Currently there are 890 designated landmarks in the state. Mississippi Landmarks are spread out between eighty-one of Mississippi's eighty-two counties; only Issaquena County has no such landmarks.
The Lancaster Court House Historic District is a national historic district consisting of 25 structures, including one monument, located in Lancaster, Virginia, Lancaster County, Virginia. Four of the buildings make up the Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library, founded in 1958, whose purpose is to preserve and interpret the history of Lancaster County, Virginia.
Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."
The Historic Fairfax County Courthouse is one of the oldest buildings in Fairfax, Virginia. It was constructed in 1799 to serve as the seat of government in Fairfax County. During the American Civil War, the first Confederate officer casualty of the war took place on the courthouse grounds and the building was occupied by both sides in the conflict. Today, the original courthouse building is part of the larger courthouse site that serves the local government of Fairfax County.
The Cumberland County Courthouse is a historic courthouse building located at Cumberland, Cumberland County, Virginia. It was built by Dabney Cosby, a master builder for Thomas Jefferson, in 1818. It is a brick, one-story, rectangular, gable-roofed courthouse. The building features the Tuscan order throughout and a tetrastyle portico. Also included are the contributing small, brick, one-story clerks office; the brick, two-story, gable-roofed former jail; and Confederate Civil War monument (1901).
Brunswick County Courthouse Square is a historic county courthouse complex and national historic district located at Lawrenceville, Brunswick County, Virginia. It encompasses four contributing buildings and two contributing objects. They are the courthouse building, a clerk's office, library, jail, Confederate war monument, and a simple granite slab monument commemorating the county's veterans of World War I to the Vietnam War. Together they constitute a classic Southern courthouse square. The courthouse was built in 1854–55, as a two-story, gable-roofed rectangular brick building in the Greek Revival style. In 1939, a rear brick addition was completed, creating a T-shaped plan. The clerk's office is a two-story brick building built in 1893, with rear additions built in 1924 and 1939. The library was built in 1941.
The Charles City County Courthouse is a historic county courthouse located at Charles City, Charles City County, Virginia. It was built about 1730, and is a one-story, T-shaped, brick structure. It has an apparently original modillion cornice and a steep hipped roof covered in tin. It features an arcaded front. Also on the property are a contributing Confederate monument, a late 19th-century clerk's office with later additions, and a frame jail building built about 1867.
Goochland County Court Square is a historic county courthouse and national historic district located at Goochland, Goochland County, Virginia. It includes three contributing buildings and one contributing site. The Goochland County Court House was built in 1826 by Dabney Cosby, an architect of the area. It is a two-story, temple-form brick structure with a projecting pedimented tetrastyle Tuscan order portico.
King and Queen Courthouse Green Historic District is a national historic district located at King and Queen Court House, near Shacklefords, King and Queen County, Virginia. It encompasses eight contributing buildings, seven contributing structures, and two contributing objects in the county seat of King and Queen County. The district includes a small courthouse compound with a courthouse, clerk's office, and county jail, a granite monument and brick wall, a hotel / tavern building, a school, a specialty store building, and a residence on the site of another hotel and tavern.
Warren County Courthouse is a historic county courthouse complex located at Front Royal, Warren County, Virginia. It was built in 1935–1936, and is a two-story, stone faced concrete block, Colonial Revival style building. It consists of a central rectangular block with a pedimented gable roof and smaller flanking recessed wings. The central block is topped by a three-stage cupola with an open and domed belfry. Also on the property are the contributing brick clerk's office, brick jail, and two war memorials - a Confederate Monument, dedicated in 1911, and an obelisk honoring veterans of World Wars I and II.
Denbigh Plantation, also known as Mathews Manor, is a historic archaeological site located at Newport News, Virginia.
First Denbigh Parish Church Archeological Site is a historic archaeological site located at Newport News, Virginia. The site is located on the bluff overlooking the Warwick River at the mouth of Church Creek. It took its name from nearby Denbigh Plantation and was constructed in 1636.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Newport News, Virginia, United States, which incorporated in 1896. For earlier history related to this same geographic area, see Warwick County, Virginia and Kecoughtan, Virginia.
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.