Lunenburg County Courthouse

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William Howard and Dabney Cosby, who had worked for Thomas Jefferson, completed this courthouse in 1827. The second courthouse to occupy this site, it is a temple-form building employing the Doric order and was influenced by Jefferson's Roman Revival style. It originally included an apsidal rear wall. The exterior stairs were added later in the 19th century. Lunenburg's county seat, originally located near present-day Chase City, was moved here after Mecklenburg County was formed in 1765. This town was laid off as Lewiston in 1817 and later renamed Lunenburg Court House. Two law offices (built 1842 and 1888) remain on the courthouse square.

Department of Historic Resources, 2013

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Landon C. Bell, The Old Free State, Vol. 1 (Richmond: William Byrd Press, 1927); Adam T. Erby and Stephen S. Israel, Lunenburg County and Its Courts (Kenbridge: Victoria Dispatch Press, 2012); William H. Gaines, Jr., “Courthouses of Lunenburg and Mecklenburg Counties,” Virginia Cavalcade Vol XX (Winter 1971); Carl Lounsbury, The Courthouses of Early Virginia: An Architectural History (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005); John O. Peters and Margaret T. Peters, Virginia Historic Courthouses (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995)