STAUNTON – Augusta County Clerk of Circuit Court R. Steven Landes announced today that the Augusta County Courthouse Virginia Historical Highway Marker will be dedicated and unveiled to the public on Wednesday, July 28, during a ceremony beginning at 5 p.m. The speakers for the ceremony will be Chief Judge W. Chapman Goodwin, 25^th Circuit, and G.L. “Butch” Wells, Vice Chairman of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors.

     The Augusta County Courthouse Historical Highway Marker was approved on March 18, by the Virginia Board of Historic Resources. The Virginia Historical Highway Marker program documents facts, persons, events, and places prominently identified with the history of the nation, state, or region. The Department of Historic Resource’s purpose in erecting markers is to educate the public about Virginia’s history, not to honor, memorialize, or commemorate persons, events, or places. Because highway markers are not honorific in nature, they do not serve the same purpose as monuments, statues, memorial plaques, or war memorials. There are currently more than 2,500 markers located across the Commonwealth of Virginia. The program is among the oldest in the nation and began in 1927.

     The language adopted for the metal highway marker that will be dedicated and unveiled reads:

Augusta County Courthouse

     “Augusta County, created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1738, was formally organized in 1745. Its original western boundary stretched “to the utmost limits of Virginia,” a claim that then extended to the Pacific Ocean. The county court first met in a log courthouse that William Beverley built on his property here. John Madison served as the county’s first clerk of court from 1745 to 1778. Prominent regional architect T.J. Collins designed the current courthouse, the fifth on this site, in the Beaux-Arts and Neo-Classical Revival styles. The building, completed in 1901, was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register, and the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

     The Augusta County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office is in downtown Staunton at the Augusta County Courthouse. The Clerk serves as the recorder of deeds and probate judge, issues marriage licenses and is the official court administrator for all civil and criminal cases. The Clerk creates and maintains all court files and records, prepares court orders and jury lists, contacts jurors and issues summons and court processes. More information about the services of the Augusta County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office can be found online at www.co.augusta.va.us/government/circuitcourt-clerk.