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 The present Westmoreland County courthouse as it appeared when it was first constructed in 1900. |
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'Twas in Westmoreland's courthouse in June of 1774 that a resolution to aid Boston, whose harbor had been closed by the British, was adopted...and in May of 1775, resolutions were passed to denounce Virginia's Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, for seizing the colony's gunpowder supply at Williamsburg. Why...Westmoreland County practically started the American Revolutionary War all by itself! Many of Virginia's older counties boast of their pre-Revolutionary anti-Britishisms, but Westmoreland County can also claim US Presidents George Washington and James Monroe as native sons, and was home to the Lee family, which included two signers of the Declaration of Independence (Richard Henry and Francis Lighfoot), as well as Robert E., who needs no introduction. Once the war started, the British paid Westmoreland County back by burning much of its court records, and perhaps the courthouse itself. Dangling as it does precariously close to the Potomac River, Westmoreland County proved to be easy pickings for Great Britain yet again in the War of 1812 thanks to the Royal Navy's control of the Chesapeake Bay: The wicked Lobsterbacks occupied the courthouse, and may or may not have burned some more things. Damage to court records at the hands of the British in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, and the Union during the Civil War, awards Westmoreland County a place on the Burned Record Counties list, under the category of Considerable Loss. |
For whatever reason, a new courthouse was built in 1823, and another was needed by 1900. The bulk of the courthouse that stands today in Montross was built by the B.F. Smith Fireproof Construction Company of Alexandria, which was very active in Virginia and North Carolina from the late 1890's to the early 1910's, building vaults, courthouses and other civic structures. Surely an entity as susceptible to the perils of fire as the county court system was comforted by a company with the word Fireproof in its name!
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Many of those "fireproof" county courthouses that were built in Virginia at the start of the 20th century had a look that was more in common with a business or even a private residence, than with the arched porticos of those early courthouses that had been inspired by the buildings of Williamsburg: See above left. Between 1900 and 1937, however, a dozen counties paid homage to the style of Thomas Jefferson - who, among his many accomplishments, designed several Virginia county courthouses with the distinguishing characteristic of Romanesque columns afront - by adding columned porticos to their existing courthouses. You guessed it, Westmoreland County was amongst that dozen.
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 Westmoreland County's Confederate Monument was erected a bare eleven years after the end of the Civil War, in 1876, making it one of the earliest such edifices to be raised at a Virginia county seat. As such it's considerably different from many of the cookie-cutter designs that popped up in the first decades of the 20th century. It's the standard obelisk, but there's some uncommonly fine detail work that one generally doesn't see in the more recent monuments. |
There are several pleasantly old-looking buildings on either side of the Westmoreland County Courthouse, but none appears to be a clerk's office or jail. To the left of the courthouse is the Westmoreland County Museum and Visitor's Center, which was built as a replica of Wakefield, the birthplace of George Washington. I was naturally not there at a time when the museum was open, but I was able to visit the Virginia Presidents' Garden, which is on the grounds of the museum. The Virginia Presidents' Garden honors those US Presidents who were born in Virginia, by forcing the visitor to stand in the middle of what appears to be a furious, centuries-long staring match betwixt busts of George Washington and James Madison, while a bust of James Monroe appears to avert his gaze in eye-rolling exasperation. Carved into the base of a central sundial are the names of all of the Virginia-born Presidents: Harrison, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Taylor, Tyler, Washington and Wilson. |
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 The Westmoreland County Museum and Visitor's Center, home of the slightly disturbing Virginia President's Garden. |
 The Virginia President's Garden, where Washington and Madison are locked in an eternal scowl-off. |
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