The Page County Courthouse, atop one of the highest points in the county seat town of Luray, was designed and constructed by William B. Phillips, mason, and Malcolm F. Crawford, carpenter, master builders formerly employed by Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia. Completed by 1834, the temple-form building, with its Tuscan pediment and entablature, shows the influence of the third president’s distinctive classical style. Although the ground-floor arcade was also a feature favored by Jefferson, the arcade was a traditional element of Virginia courthouses since the colonial period. Here the arcade was directed by the Page County commissioners to be carried into the one-story wings. The pedimented belfry with its paired pilasters is also an original feature. The building’s form is very similar to that of the Madison County Courthouse, also a Phillips and Crawford project.
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