Albemarle County Courthouse

The land came first. In 1761, Dr. Thomas Walker donated the acreage that would become Charlottesville's civic core, and the following year the Virginia General Assembly made it official — county seat, gridded town, named for a British queen. The courthouse that rose here in 1803 did more than hear cases. It doubled as a community church, with Episcopal, Methodist, and other congregations sharing the space in a town too small to sustain separate buildings for each. Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe all attended services here, particularly after Jefferson retired in 1809. Three presidents, the same room.

The grounds once held a whipping post, pillory, and stocks — the courthouse was also where Albemarle County voted, recorded land, and conducted its public life. In 1859, a Gothic Revival front addition went up, octagonal stair towers flanking the entrance. The building has been in continuous operation ever since, anchoring a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Court Square is still working government. Go on a weekday and you'll find it doing exactly what it was built to do.