Original Location of seat: Richmond
County Established: 1634
Present Courthouse Built: 1896
Burned Record County

The Citie of Henricus, named for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (eldest son of England's King James I), was founded in 1611 on an island in the James River in what is today Chesterfield County...but was destroyed during the Indian Unpleasantness of 1622. Named for this ill-fated citie, Henrico was one of Virginia's original eight Shires, established in 1634.

Henrico County's first courthouse was built around 1680, in what was the county seat at the time: Varina, about ten miles southeast of Richmond. In 1752 Henrico's county seat was moved to Richmond, which was developing into a major city thanks to its location at the "head of navigation" on the James River.

A "colonial-style brick structure" was built as Henrico County's new courthouse in Richmond in 1752. For some reason (which probably seemed eminently sensible at the time) it was placed in the middle of the intersection of 22nd and Main Streets.

It was upon the steps of this courthouse that the Declaration of Independence was read to the public for the first time, on August 5, 1775.




Between 1728 and 1948, ten counties and three independent cities were formed from the original shire: Goochland (1728); Albermarle (1748); Chesterfield (1749); Cumberland (1749); Amherst (1761); Buckingham (1761); Fluvanna (1777); Powhatan (1777); Nelson (1807); City of Richmond (1842); part of Appamattox County (1845); City of Charlottesville (1888); and the City of Colonial Heights (1948).
Henrico County replaced its courthouse in 1843, with the columned structure we see inset at top right. This iteration was thoughtfully placed beside the road it had been blocking for 90 years, thus releasing what was probably the biggest traffic jam in history up to that point.

The courthouse was damaged in April of 1865 thanks to the Confederacy's carefully considered "Evacuation Fire," and the county's records went up in smoke. The edifice we see before us today was built in 1896, and was intended to house all of Henrico County's offices.

Richmond became an Independent City in 1902. Virginia has 38 Independent Cities, which operate in some ways as mini-counties. Richmond annexed a number of neighboring communities through the first half of the 20th century, eventually enveloping the Henrico County Courthouse...which suddenly found itself, embarassingly, not in Henrico County.
Similar to the manner in which a US embassy abroad is on "American soil," the Henrico County Courthouse was declared to be in Henrico County to maintain its county jurisdiction, despite the fact that it was in the city of Richmond. This oddness persisted until 1974, when Henrico County moved its seat to a new facility some nine miles to the northwest, which was actually in Henrico County.

This courthouse has a fairly meager selection of historical signage, with just two stones on tiny patches of grass on either side of the steps leading to its front door: A relatively understated Confederate monument sits at the base of a flagpole, and a marker signifying the constitution of Richmond's first city government, the Common Hall, which was initiated in 1752.

Please click on any of the images on this page
to see its full-sized counterpart.
→Back to Main Page←     →Back to Counties List←