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Location of seat: Tappahannock
County Established: 1692
Present Courthouse Built: 1848
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Essex County is particularly fortunate in that it has two courthouses! Sort of.
Essex became a county in 1692, when Old Rappahannock County was divided into Essex and York Counties. The first Essex County courthouse was built in 1728, and was burned by the British during the War of 1812, when Tappahannock was occupied by the dreaded lobsterbacks. This courthouse was restored in 1815, and served until 1848 when Essex County's present courthouse was built. |
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Today what's left of Essex County's 1728 courthouse make up some of the walls of the Beale Memorial Baptist Church: These remains are the "oldest surviving fabric" of any Virginia courthouse.
Built just a few hundred feet from the 1728 courthouse, Essex County's present courthouse was erected in 1848. It was built at almost exactly the same time as Powhatan County's courthouse, and the two share what is known as the distyle-in-muris style: Two visible columns front the portico, with additional outer columns built into the walls. On either side of the 1848 courthouse are the circa 1769 Debtor's Prison, which now serves as the county Treasurer's Office, and the Old Clerk's Office, which today houses the Essex County Women's Club. In a shady courtyard along the courthouse's left side there is a granite tablet honoring the USS Tappahannock, a US Navy oiler that served during the Second World War, as well as the Korean and Vietnam Wars. |
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  The Beale Memorial Baptist Church, which incorporates the remains of Essex County's first courthouse. |
 Essex County's Treasurer's Office, which had been its Debtors Prison. The Old Clerk's Office, today serving as the HQ of the Essex County Women's Club. |
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A block to the east of the courthouse square is the Essex County Museum, home of the Essex County Historical Society. Several of the Virginia counties I've visited have a museum of sorts, but they're usually only open for a few hours, once or twice a week...Essex County's museum, however, seems to be open on a regular basis, and I actually got to check it out!
A delightfully wide range of artifacts and informational signing comprise the museum's collection: There is a room dedicated to the county's wildlife, which features several entertainingly stuffed specimens on display; Lots of information and items detailing the county's participation in the World Wars, including the activities of the USS Tappahannock; And a series of exhibits involving the Civil War, which, most excitingly for me, includes a diorama of Fort Lowry, a fortified battery that was intended to defend Fredericksburg from Union gunboats on the Rappahannock at Lowry's Point, four miles downriver from Tappahannock. This small fort was built in 1861, and was abandoned in March of 1862. |
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The Essex County Museum. I was clearly taken by the little walled-in graveyard next to it! |
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Essex County's Confederate Monument is a beauty. Built atop a pleasingly boat-shaped, carefully botantically-decorated median betwixt lanes of traffic on Prince Street, which runs before the courthouse, it is the familiar Confederate-atop-an-obelisk design, with metal plaques around its base naming all of those gallant Essex County men who fought "for the principles of state sovereignty and in defense of their homes."
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