Powhatan Courthouse Historic District

Powhatan Court House is a small Virginia county seat whose historic core is a tree-shaded, two-and-a-half-acre square enclosed by a low brick wall. At its center is the county court house, built in 1848-49 as a stuccoed, temple-form Greek Revival building with two fluted Doric columns set in antis. Local records credit plans obtained by building commissioner Philip St. George Cocke, and the form cites strong circumstantial evidence that architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed it; Lewis Johnson of Hanover County was the builder. Around the square stand a late-eighteenth century brick clerk's office, an early-nineteenth century jail, a large late-eighteenth century tavern with two-level galleries, an Italianate frame office, a town pump and a Confederate monument. The district was recognized for the court house's architectural quality and for the unspoiled character and completeness of the whole courthouse complex, which remains largely intact.