{"nrhp_refnum":"69000251","name":"King William County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Rte. 619, off VA 30","address_restricted":false,"city":"King William","county":"King William County","state":"VA","lat":37.68813202800004,"lon":-77.01296465099995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1969-10-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, T-shaped brick courthouse on the east side of Route 619 in King William, King William County, Virginia, erected circa 1725 and still used as a courthouse.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of the oldest surviving and best preserved courthouses in Virginia and considers it the oldest courthouse still in use as such in the United States. Its form was the prototype for several other eighteenth-century Virginia courthouses. It also keeps an almost completely rural setting typical of colonial courthouses.","narrative":"King William County Court House, built around 1725 on the east side of Route 619, is a one-story T-shaped brick building with a steep hipped roof and a modillioned cornice. Its most distinctive feature is a five-bay open arcade across the facade, laid in Flemish bond with glazed headers and arches dressed with rubbed brick stretchers. Later changes include a one-bay extension at the rear with an exterior end chimney, a slate roof replacing the original wooden shingles, and a partition creating an entrance hall. A low brick wall with stile-like steps, built to keep out grazing cattle, survives in the courtyard. The courthouse is considered one of the oldest and best preserved in Virginia and the oldest in the United States still serving as a courthouse. Its form became the prototype for several other eighteenth-century Virginia courthouses, and it retains the rural setting common to colonial courthouses.","period_of_significance":"18th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in government use and in good condition; the building is still used as a courthouse, with some alterations to the rear, roof and interior.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.433098-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/64/6814/41681464/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/69000251.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000251/3f2dea94ee-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000251/3f2dea94ee-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Bryan Pilati","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_William_County_Courthouse_001.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bryan Pilati</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_William_County_Courthouse_001.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681464","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_William_County_Courthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6412142"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/king-william-county/king-william-county-courthouse-69000251/"}