Some buildings come and go without much fanfare. Others seem to hold a town together. In Edenton, that building has been standing since 1767.
Walk down East King Street on a summer morning, and you’ll see it before you reach it: a handsome brick Georgian courthouse, framed by the green sweeping down to Edenton Bay behind it. It looks like something out of a history book.
Because it is.
This is the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse, a National Historic Landmark and one of the finest Georgian courthouses in the South.
A Courthouse Older Than the Country
Let that sink in for a second. This courthouse was raising the roof over public business nearly a decade before the Declaration of Independence.
Edenton was built to be a seat of government from the very beginning. In November of 1712, the Colonial Assembly passed an act to promote the building of a courthouse “at the fork of Queen Anne’s Creek,” and a town grew up around it. A first courthouse went up by 1718. A second followed in 1724. And in 1767, on the north side of East King Street, the building you can visit today took its place at the head of the Green, where it has stood ever since.
It is the oldest courthouse still in active use in the state. Few places in America let you stand inside colonial history and watch it still doing its job. But, the NC supreme court does just this from time to time.
The Finest Georgian Courthouse in the South
The architecture alone is worth the trip.
Built by local artisans using local materials, the T-plan building is laid in Flemish bond brick over an English bond water table, its design based on classical British architecture. The front door opens directly into the courtroom, exactly as it did in the eighteenth century. Upstairs, the whole central portion of the second story is given over to a grand assembly room — sometimes called the ballroom — appointed with raised paneling and a fireplace at either end.
This is considered one of the most important public buildings in all of colonial America.
Where the Founders Did Business
Here’s where it gets remarkable.
The men who helped found the American Republic used this courthouse.
Joseph Hewes, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was one of the commissioners appointed to raise money to build it. James Iredell and Samuel Johnston pleaded cases before the judges here — Iredell went on to sit on the very first U.S. Supreme Court under George Washington, and Johnston went on to serve as Governor of North Carolina and a U.S. Senator. Hugh Williamson, who signed the U.S. Constitution and later served in the first two Congresses, was an Edenton man too.
Edenton’s citizens gathered in this building during the struggle for independence. In 1792, Congress named the town a seat for holding U.S. District Court. And in April of 1819, President James Monroe himself visited Edenton and attended a public dinner right here at the Courthouse.
To this day, the Chowan County Courthouse and the courthouse in Raleigh are the only two places where the North Carolina Supreme Court can convene. Not bad for a building that predates the nation it now serves.
Step Out Onto the Green
Don’t rush off once you’ve been inside. The Courthouse Green is a story of its own.
Public property since Edenton was laid out in 1712, the green still hosts memorials, celebrations, and public events, weddings, and parties, just as it always has. At its southern end stands a large marble memorial to Joseph Hewes. At the foot of the green sit three mounted Revolutionary War cannons — part of a shipment a Swiss captain brought to Edenton in 1778 when the British blockade made the intended ports too dangerous to reach.
And while you are there, keep an eye out for the bronze teapot, a nod to the Edenton Tea Party of October 25, 1774, when the women of this town made history of their own.
While You’re Here
The Courthouse sits at the heart of the Edenton Museum Trail, so it’s the perfect place to begin. Just steps away, you’ll find the Cupola House, the Roanoke River Lighthouse, and the James Iredell House. All of them within easy walking distance.
The Historic Edenton State Historic Site offers daily tours, and the Penelope Barker House Welcome Center is the ideal spot to get your bearings, settle into a rocking chair, and plan the rest of your day.
Come Walk Through History
There’s a certain magic to standing in a room where the founders once stood, in a building still doing the work it was built to do more than 250 years ago.
So the next time you’re in the prettiest small town in the South, make your way to the head of the Green. Step through the door of the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse, look up at that assembly room, and let yourself feel just how much history one small town can hold.
It’s been standing here since 1767. It’ll be glad to see you.
