Chesterfield County Courthouse — Chesterfield, South Carolina

This marker was placed on the grounds of the Old Chesterfield County Courthouse in 1928 by the Chesterfield County United Daughters of the Confederacy. The marker commemorates the original courthouse, where the First Secession Meeting took place in 1860. By 1865 Sherman and his troops had occupied Chesterfield, burning the courthouse and all of its documents.

The second courthouse building, also known as the Old Chesterfield County Courthouse, was built in 1884 to replace the one burned by Sherman. Its points of architectural interest are the brick entrance porch, added to the building in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, and the Second Empire mansard roof. Today it houses the Chesterfield Visitors Center.

The courthouse is listed in the National Register as part of the East Main Street Historic District:

This courthouse was built ca. 1884 to replace an earlier building, which reputedly had been burned by Sherman’s troops in 1865. The courthouse is a two-story brick building with a cross-gabled metal roof and a tall cupola with a Second Empire mansard roof, recessed behind the facade. The building has offices on either side of a central longitudinal hall on the first floor and a single large courtroom on the second floor. The windows of the building have segmental brick arches. A brick entrance porch was added by the WPA in 1935, and a two-story rear addition was built at the same time. The building was used as the county courthouse until 1978, when the Department of Social Services occupied the building. The courthouse grounds contain a marker erected in 1928 by the seven chapters of the U.D.C. in Chesterfield County to commemorate the “First Secession Meeting.”

Chesterfield County Courthouse Map

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