Nomination Form
Grayson County’s seat was established at this site in Old Town, near the city of Galax, in 1799. The second courthouse, a log structure, was built soon after. A diminutive clerk’s office was erected in 1810. In 1833 the county commissioned James Toncray to construct a brick courthouse. Toncray, a leading builder of courthouses in Southwest Virginia, constructed Wythe County’s courthouse in 1818 (demolished) and Scott County’s courthouse in 1829. He built courthouses for Montgomery and Floyd counties (both demolished) at the same time he was working on the Grayson County structure. Toncray employed a tripartite composition, using two-story wings, for each of his courthouses. The Old Grayson County Courthouse became a private residence after the county seat was moved to the town of Independence, and a new Grayson County Courthouse constructed in 1908. It later was used as a hotel and eventually for a barn. The Old Grayson County Courthouse and the Clerk’s Office were privately restored in 1988.
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
