Red brick and white trim mark the Colonial Williamsburg Courthouse, raised from 1770 to 1771 facing Market Square. The red bricks and white wooden trim-boards, the long arched windows with white shutters, the projected portico over one entrance — unique in Georgian architecture — all make it unmistakable. Look up at the hipped roof resting on an entablature with dentil moldings; both sides are pierced by a chimney and a central octagonal drum capped with a dome and a spire.
Inside, it once housed two separate court systems: the James City County Court for county cases and the Hustings Court for city cases. On July 25, 1776 Benjamin Waller read aloud the Declaration of Independence here after it arrived from Philadelphia. Colonial Williamsburg acquired the property in 1928, and it was added to the National Register as a contributing property to the Williamsburg Historic District on October 15, 1966.
The building was used as a hospital for the Confederate Army after the Battle of... Notice Market Square just ahead and Duke of Gloucester Street running behind, layered with ceremony and use.