53 Court Sq

From the National Register nomination

Post Modern two-story building of cinder block with a buff stretcher-bond brick veneer and off-white simulation stone trim. The flat roof is concealed behind a mansard with simulation Spanish tile. The main entry is contained in a two-story recess at the northeast corner. Along the W. Market St. elevation is an arcade with bench seating at its base. On the east facade is blind arcading containing tinted plate glass windows (similar windows occur behind the arches on the north elevation). A second-story skywalk in a barrel-vaulted tinted plate glass enclosure connects to the Rockingham-Harrisonburg Jail at 25 S. Liberty. The classicism of the Judicial Center harmonizes with the classical character of other key buildings on Court Square. The building's arcaded Market St. elevation derives from McKim, Mead & White's 1888-92 Boston Public Library facade or from the library's prototype, Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti's Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, Italy. The bench seating on the north elevation calls to mind similar seating on the facades of Renaissance Florentine palazzi.