About

Court Days in Early Virginia will be an overview of the events and the architecture that shaped the development of the courthouse grounds in colonial Virginia. As such, it is an overview of the common building types found on the courthouse grounds across Tidewater Virginia in the eighteenth century and activities that occurred on them during the monthly sessions of the county courts. It will not be a study of specific courthouses and will feature, for example, several images of the Smithfield 1750-era buildings.

Carl Lounsbury retired after 35 years as the senior architectural historian for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, responsible for long term research projects including public buildings, 17th and 18th century theaters, building craftsmen, 17th century rowhouses, churches and meeting houses. He taught during this period at the College of William and Mary as well as the University of Mary Washington; Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Virginia.

Dr. Lounsbury is author of The Courthouses of Early Virginia: An Architectural History (2005). His research interests have included Early American Architecture and British Architectural History, 1550-1850. He has consulted in design for museums, historical societies and state agencies, with more recent designs including a 17th century church for Jamestown Settlement, a report on rowhouses for Jamestown Rediscovery, courtroom fittings for Prince William County, Virginia; and other investigations. More recently he led a collaboration to publish The Material World of Eyre Hall: Four Centuries of Chesapeake History (2021), an architectural, sociological and genealogical dig into the history of the Eyre family continuous ownership from the Seventeenth to the present.