Nomination Form
The assemblage of buildings that comprise the Northampton County Courthouse Historic District in the town of Eastville includes the 1899 Northampton County courthouse by F. Bartholomew Smith, the 1731 courthouse and clerk’s office, and an early-19th-century debtors’ prison. The latter three buildings, maintained as museums by the Northampton County Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (now Preservation Virginia), form an early court complex symbolic of the Eastern Shore’s long history. The 1731 courthouse, built by John Marshall, was moved to its present location in 1913 in order make room for a Confederate monument; the front wall was rebuilt in the process. The complex also includes a row of small attorneys’ offices and the ca. 1780 Eastville Inn, a rambling frame courthouse tavern with several additions. Eastville has been the county seat since 1690. The county has the nation’s oldest continuously kept English county records. The Northampton County Courthouse Historic District forms the core of the Eastville Historic District.
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
Nomination Form
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
