Completed in 1812 to serve the 1783 Pittsylvania County courthouse, the former clerk’s office is the oldest public building in the town of Chatham. Built to be the chief repository of the county’s official records, it served from 1813 to 1852 under the charges of William Tunstall, Jr. and his son William H. Tunstall who succeeded him as clerk in 1836. The simple brick structure lost its original intended function in 1853 with the construction of the present county courthouse, which accommodated a new clerk’s office. A demolished one-room addition of 1833 was reconstructed when the building was restored by the Pittsylvania County Historical Society in 1987-89. The Old Clerk’s Office, Chatham is now used as the society’s museum and meeting place.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia