The document summarizes the history of courthouses in Augusta County, Virginia from 1738 to the present. It describes 5 different courthouses on the site, from the original log structure in 1745 to the current brick building constructed in 1901. It also discusses the founding of Staunton in 1747 and the protracted negotiations in the 1880s when the city government wanted to move the court sessions to the city hall building.

1. The Augusta
County
Courthouse
AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

2. Augusta County –
1738: Formed
Dec. 1745:
in operation
21 Justices of the
Peace & Sheriff
1746: 12 Vestrymen

3. Courthouse No. 1
Log: no windows, no heat
There by December 1745

4. Courthouse No. 2 1755-1789
Finished 1755, First Court met there in August
It had a chimney and a fire place
Original structure retrofitted as a house
and used until 1788

5. Courthouse No. 3 1789-1836
Augusta County just about to its current geographic size
2-story stone house finished in the fall of 1789

6. Met Second Monday of each month

7. Staunton
1747 Thomas Lewis laid out town called Staunton
1802 Hustings Court begins: On March 20, 1802, the freeholders and housekeepers of the town
met at the county courthouse and organized the town government, elected 12 Common
Councilmen.
--1st court session held at the county courthouse April 19, 1802
1878 City purchased a building for city hall and the clerk ordered the Hustings Court be moved
there
--On Aug. 9, 1878, the city sold its interest in the Augusta Courthouse to the County for $3,500;
supposed to vacate Jan. 1, 1881.
--Protracted negotiations 1881-1885!!
--On Nov. 21, 1885 City agreed to pay county $125 per year
1897 Hustings Court moves to City Hall Building, 16 years after supposed to vacate Augusta
County Courthouse!

8. Courthouse No. 4 1836-1900
Brick, started construction in January 1835; in use starting June 1836

11. Current Courthouse (No. 5) 1901

14. Metal details
Mullins Manufacting
Salem, Ohio

16. 1897

18. John Brown
Baldwin Bust