Augusta County was named for Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719-1772), a nice German girl who was the mother of England's King George III (1738-1820). King George was of course a much-detested potentate on this side of the Atlantic in the latter half of the 18th century, but at the time that Augusta County named itself, folks were still feeling pretty darned English about things.

The concept of Augusta's western boundary was a bit squishy when the county was first established, with some figuring that it extended all the way to the Pacific Ocean, which itself was a rather vague concept at the time. Sadly, starting in 1770 parts of Augusta County were parceled off to make new counties, most of which are still around, but a few were soon abolished because the authorities decided they didn't like "heathen names" (Yohogania, Illinois) for Virginia's counties. Augusta County's present courthouse is the fifth to inhabit that space, which is at least partially referenced on its cornerstone. It's in the middle of urban Staunton, so there's no hint of the classically pastoral Virginia courthouse green.

...but this doesn't mean it's not a lovely courthouse! It's built of red pressed brick atop a raised foundation of limestone, with yellow pressed-brick columns and pedestals. A statue of Justice crowns the courthouse's dome, and there's an interesting arrangement of stone-and-cement squatty cylindrical lawn ornaments at each corner of the square.

Unsurprisingly (and not particularly unusual in an urban environment), there is no Confederate monument in front of Augusta County's courthouse. They do have lovely plaques honoring those from Augusta County who died in World Wars I & II, plus another plaque for Korea and Vietnam. The First World War plaque is particularly beautiful, but separates the "coloreds" from the rest of the dead...as though those black folks were any less dead, or patriotic, than the white folks. The first time I saw this separation on another Virginia county's war memorial it made me slightly sick and very angry, but given the time period in which these plaques were made (1920's), I suppose we should be grateful that the "coloreds" were even mentioned.

Augusta County isn't listed amongst those Virginia counties that suffered "catastrophic loss" of their court records, as so many did thanks to fire, flooding and/or destruction at the hands of Union troops during the Civil War. Staunton was a major manufacturing center and supply depot for the Confederacy, and when the boys in blue arrived in June of 1864, they wasted little time in burning most of everything important. It seems likely that the courthouse would have been one of those important things to be torched, but maybe the court records had been moved elsewhere for safety?

Just south of Augusta County's courthouse is Staunton's adorable train station, which has nothing to do with courthouses, but it's just so adorable. 'Twas the railroad that made Staunton so important to the Confederacy during the Civil War, and it's still an active Amtrak station today. Click here to see a sign about that station.

Augusta County Historical Society       Wikipedia's Augusta County, Virginia page
Virginia's Historic Courthouses by John O. and Margaret T. Peters, pages 173-174