Court Square

From the National Register nomination

Romanesque Revival/Renaissance Revival three-story building of quarry-faced ashlar with a terra-cotta tile hip roof and a limestone foundation. The building's dominant feature is its clock tower, which rises an additional two stories above the façade. The tower's lower stage contains three narrow round-arched windows, and at its base are scrolled consoles. The upper stage has clock faces on each of its four sides set in round-arched frames. The domed tower roof features round-arched ventilation dormers and a bronze statue of Justice at the apex. Below the tower is a slightly projecting frontispiece with a more pronounced first-story projection containing the main entry. Three round arches supported by columns on tall pedestals form a portico behind which is the entrance in a large round-arched frame. Over the portico is a balcony with a stone balustrade, and on the frontispiece above are paired windows in a pilaster frame surmounted by a scrolled pediment with center cartouche. To each side are elliptical windows with keystone surrounds. The east and west elevations are identical, with slightly projecting first-story porticos similar to that of the south elevation. The first story has tall round-arched windows linked at the bases of the arches by a molded cornice and resting on a smooth belt course. At the first/second-story division is another molded cornice and above it a projecting belt course on which the square-headed 1/1 second-story windows stand. These have molded entablatures that support square attic-story windows with classical surrounds and reticulated muntins. These first and second-story window treatments wrap around to the north and south elevations. The north elevation has a frontispiece similar to that of the south elevation but lacking the first-story portico. Above the north frontispiece is a parapet with scrolled consoles at its base and a Palladian frame with ventilation louvers on its face. All elevations are capped by a dentil cornice. On the east and west faces of the roof are hipped dormers, and at the two front ridge peaks are stone chimneys or boiler flues. At the northeast corner is a weatherboarded frame cellar bulkhead, and at the northwest corner is a tall vertical board fence that conceals heat exchangers. The courthouse stands at the center of a landscaped public square bounded by a limestone retaining wall with a peaked stone coping and pyramidal capped gate pillars at the various entrances. Walkways have herringbone brick pavers and limestone borders. Some pavements and large concrete planters around the edges of the square were installed in the late 1970s. Virginia Highway Marker A 33 "Harrisonburg" stands near the southeast corner. Shade trees including elms, maples, and copper beeches are mostly located on the east side of the square. Limestone and concrete steps align with the south entrance to the courthouse. At their top they are flanked by concrete pedestals with globe finials and commemorative bronze plaques installed by the Massanutten Chapter of the DAR in 1927. One plaque commemorates Thomas Harrison, who gave the land for the courthouse. The other commemorates the county's namesake Watson Wentworth, Marquis of Rockingham. The pedestals pre-date the plaques. In the individual National Register nomination for the courthouse, historians Margaret Peters and Robert Carter describe the building as "Harrisonburg's most conspicuous architectural landmark." Architectural historian Calder Loth considers it one of the Commonwealth's grandest county courthouses. Rockingham County was created in 1778 and the following year the county was deeded two-and-a-half acres by Thomas and Sarah Harrison as the site for its public buildings. The first courthouse, a log building, was built in 1780, followed by masonry buildings in 1791, 1833, and 1874. In 1896 the county selected the Staunton architectural firm T. J. Collins & Son to design a new courthouse. Washington, D.C., builder W. E. Spiers was chosen as the contractor, but local builders William M. Bucher & Son may also have played a role. As originally constructed the courthouse contained a second-floor "opera house" used for meetings and entertainments. This was eliminated in a 1931 remodeling by Lynchburg architect Clarence Henry Hinnant. In 1955 the courthouse was considered to be located at 80 Court Square. In 1977 a court square plan was approved that called for the recreation of the Big Spring Springhouse (see below) and new pavements and planters. (Peters and Carter, "Rockingham County Courthouse;" Loth, Virginia Landmarks Register, 224; Peters and Peters, Virginia's Historic Courthouses, 172-173; Wells and Dalton, Virginia Architects, 94, 199; Rockingham County: Its Past and Present, Daily-News Record, August 10, 1977; Suter and Lyon, Images of America: Harrisonburg, 2, 12, 13, 17, 20, 26, 27, 30, 32, 88)