Gloucester Downtown Historic District

Gloucester Downtown Historic District extends from the east end of downtown along Main Street to the historic court circle. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, it includes 57 contributing buildings and 5 contributing archaeological sites. Notable buildings include Edge Hill House, built about 1750-1770 as a home that also served as a store and later a carriage shop, and since 1920 home to the Gloucester Woman's Club; Morgan's Drug Store, built in 1934 and operated by L.V. "Happy" Morgan as one of two Main Street pharmacies in the early twentieth century, with a soda fountain and lunch counter, until it closed in 1968; and the Botetourt Hotel, built about 1774 as a tavern, later operated as a hotel between 1872 and 1965, then purchased by Gloucester County and restored to its 18th-century style as the home of the Gloucester Museum of History. The district also includes the 1885 T.C. Walker House, home of Thomas Calhoun Walker, who was born into slavery, attended the Hampton Institute, became the first African-American lawyer in Gloucester County, and helped African Americans in the community acquire property. At Courthouse Green, the court circle contains six government buildings: the Clayton Building, the Roan Building, the Jail, the Debtor's Prison, the Clerk's Office or Court Annex Building, and the Colonial Courthouse, while the Confederate Monument at the center of the circle was erected in 1889.

Gloucester Courthouse, Virginia · United States