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Location of seat: Powhatan Courthouse
County Established: 1777
Present Courthouse Built: 1849 |
Henrico Shire, one of Virginia's original eight shires, was too darned large to govern effectively. The county of Goochland was carved out of Henrico in 1728; Cumberland County was cleaved from Goochland in 1749; and Powhatan County finally parted from Cumberland County, set its tricone hat at a jaunty angle and headed out into the world on its own in 1777.
Named for Chief Powhatan, the Native American leader who figured prominently in Virginia's first settlement at Jamestown (and father of Disney favorite Pocohontas), Powhatan County's first courthouse was Mosby Tavern. This tavern, grown from a single-room house built in 1740, had served as Cumberland County's courthouse and jail, as well as a tavern and private residence of the Mosby family. Once Powhatan became a county in 1777, it said thanks for the courthouse, jail and tavern, Cumberland, as Mosby Tavern was now in Powhatan County.
Powhatan got its own dedicated courthouse in 1778, which was built about five miles east of Mosby Tavern. A new community established itself around the courthouse, which was named Scottville, after Revolutionary War soldier General Charles Scott, who had been born in the area.
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Powhatan County's memorial to its servicemen, and the Clerk's Office. Is this the Clerk's Office? I would like to think it's the Clerk's Office. Is sure looks like a Clerk's Office. There is a sign on the courthouse green that identifies important buildings, but it's intended to direct folks to county services, and isn't helpful as far as historic buildings go.
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Scott, whose most notable wartime exploit seems to have been when he was captured by the British when Charleston surrendered in 1780, appreciated having this town named after him so much that he moved to Kentucky and became its fourth Governor. In retaliation (or perhaps due to confusion over a town called Scottsville in Albermarle County), Scottville eventually changed its name, fittingly, to Powhatan. |
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Directly to Powhatan Courthouse's north, the Grove Tavern was built in the late 18th century, named for a grove of trees that stood on the Courthouse green, at the location of a stagecoach stop. Taverns were the hotels of the day, and few (if any) of Virginia's county seats were without them. The Grove Tavern expanded in 1822, taking on the shape that we see today. The Tavern served as Powhatan Courthouse's Post Office for a time, as well as a school. After the Civil War the Tavern was renamed the Atkinson Hotel.
Powhatan County built its present courthouse in 1849, based on a drawing by New York architect Alexander J. Davis. It is a "Greek temple design," with Doric columns...just about all of Virginia's county courthouses have columns (columns do equal justice, after all!), but there are many styles of column!
Many counties wrestled with the necessity of expanding their court facilities in the 20th century, while wishing to maintain the "small jewellike resource" of the original courthouse. A major addition to Powhatan's courthouse was made in the mid-1990's which, from my perspective, was accomplished most tastefully, and convincingly mimics the style of the 1849 courthouse.
Powhatan's Confederate Monument is technically a monument to Company E of the Fourth Virginia Cavalry, Second Brigade, First Division of Stuart's Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia...which was blessedly known as the Powhatan Troop. This rather understated (in that there's no life-sized Confederate soldier perched atop) monument wasn't erected until 1999, which certainly ranks it amongst the most recent monuments to the Confederacy!
Also on Powhatan's courthouse green are the standard gray metal historical marker, and an informational sign describing the moment in 1865 when a Confederate wagon train tramped through Powhatan Courthouse: Quite a claim to fame! |
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