This courthouse has been used continuously for judicial purposes for more than 250 years, a longer record than all but two other courthouses in the country. Built in 1757, almost 20 years before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the original T-shaped structure was entered on the north side through an arcade fronted with five arches that are now windows. Following the Civil War, the arcade was bricked in to provide more space, and the entrance was moved to the south. The first court in Charles City was established in 1624 at Westover Plantation on the James River, and all judicial proceedings were moved to this location when this courthouse was built 133 years later. Despite changes to the original structure, some consider the building the most sophisticated surviving example of an arcaded courthouse, with distinctive and labor-intensive brickwork including rubbed brick at the corners, arches, and window jambs, and a molded brick water table on the lower section of the walls that curves in opposite directions.
