Sussex County's lovely courthouse was built by Dabney Cosby, a Virginia architect and builder who served as Master Brickmason under former US President Thomas Jefferson for the construction of some of the University of Virginia's original buildings in the first decades of the 19th century: Understandably, the style of building that he learned under Jefferson's tutelage is known as Jeffersonian Classicism, which is the style in which the Sussex County Courthouse was built. Mr. Cosby is also responsible for the courthouses of Cumberland, Goochland, Halifax and Lunenburg Counties.

Sussex County has historically maintained an agricultural economy, which remains the case today. Unlike many of Virginia's other county seats, that of Sussex seems particularly out of the way, with little in the way of commerce or even so much as a major roadway nearby. What there were, when I was there, were a whole lot of cats across the street facing the courthouse complex. But I'm okay with cats, and generally speaking, cats are okay with me.

Not long after Sussex County's courthouse began operating in its intended role, complaints about the "hemmed-in" nature of the courthouse complex inspired a movement to relocate the county's seat elsewhere: Private buildings, a tavern and stables crowded the courthouse square. These other structures left little room for the pillory, gallows and whipping post without which no Virginia courthouse would be complete. Residents either came to terms with the hemming-in, and/or the offending structures burned down, because Sussex Courthouse stayed in its original location, and today the courthouse green is quite spacious and tidy.

Remaining on Sussex County's courthouse square are the Clerk's Office, which was built 1923-1924; a "County Office Building" of indeterminate vintage; a jail, which has been so emasculated that I was unable to identify it as such during my visit; and the Dillard House, circa 1800, which may have served as the courthouse tavern.

As is the case on many other of Virginia County Clerk's Offices, sturdy iron shutters remain in place on some of the windows of Sussex County's. Fear of insurrection? Slave uprisings? I have yet to learn why Virginia's county Clerk's Offices in particular notionally needed this level of security, which shutters never seem to be present on courthouses or jails...but I'm sure there's a logical explanation.

There is a plaque on the Clerk's Office which pertains to the construction of that diminutive edifice.

In addition to what was once a ubiquitous sight on Virginia's county courthouse greens, but which are now rapidly vanishing from sight, the Confederate Monument (installed in this case by the Sussex Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in November of 1912), is a stone commemorating Sussex County's dead from "the other wars." Dead from the First World War, Second World War and Korean War are memorialized thereupon.

And finally, the whole of Sussex County's courthouse complex is surrounded by the classic low brick wall.