I've been working for a couple months on the history of the Courthouse and
its grounds in Chesterfield County (VA) and have a sneaky suspicion that
this may be a topic that other locales have also studied.

I'm particularly interested in studies that I can use for comparative
purposes, and which describe the buildings and features that are found with
the Courthouses (offices, jails, gallows, stocks, pillories, cemeteries,
wells, benches, landscape).

It has also become evident that the Chesterfield Courthouse grounds were
originally (original CH built in 1750) a bit larger, 400 by 800 feet,
although it was reduced down to about 1/3 that size by 1803.  I have noted
that rectangular Courthouse Greens are the norm in some of the neighboring
counties.  Was there a standard size that they tended to open and
fence?  At Chesterfield they clearly went to a lot of trouble to create a
formal compound, even going so far as to realign the roads to make the site
lay on an east to west axis.

        Dan W.

        Dan Weiskotten
        Assistant Director
        Chesterfield Historical Society
        PO Box 40
        Chesterfield, VA 23831
        (804) 777-9663
        (work email = [log in to unmask])

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