Durlacher House
a.k.a. 48AB1500
501 S 5th St, Laramie, WYThe Barbour County Courthouse is significant because it is an especially good example of the Romanesque Revival style perfected by architect Henry H. Richardson (1838-1886) in late nineteenth-century America. The monumental building is the major focal point in the city of Philippi, the county seat of Barbour, and dominates the courthouse square, the only public green space in the downtown commercial area. The architectural value of the building is further the only major stone building in Barbour County and the only public building designed in the Romanesque style. Though historical incidents or events of national or state importance are not associated with this building, its local historical significance is measured by the daily activities of recording deeds, probating wills, assessing property values, collecting taxes, and enforcing the laws that have affected the lives of the people of Philippi and Barbour County for three-quarters of a century. The Barbour County Courthouse is significant therefore as a storehouse of information on the history of the county's socio-economic development.
Barbour County was formed from the territories of Harrison, Lewis, and Randolph counties by an act of the Virginia General Assembly in 1843. It was named for Phillip P. Barbour, a distinguished politician and jurist, and a member of a noted Virginia family. The land then after called the Courthouse Square was deeded to the new county and a Greek Revival-style courthouse was ordered. It stood until the turn of the century when requirements of space and economy necessitated its removal for replacement. The open space around the newly planned building was retained, however, insuring the evolution of the town center around the county's chief symbol of government.
Architect J. Charles Fulton of Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, was hired by the county court to prepare plans for the new courthouse. His drawings and specifications were not apparently applied to the project by contractor J. P. Conn until 1903 because delays, in part a result of a petition requesting the removal of the county seat to Belington, impaired the operations of the county court.
J. Charles Fulton was an architect of local significance who filled a professional need in the region of southwestern Pennsylvania and north-central West Virginia. The West Virginia cities of Morgantown, Fairmont, and Clarksburg were only beginning to attract resident professional architects and their activity did not become well established before the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. Fulton's talent, therefore, commanded attention in this area as evidenced by his commission to design the Randolph County Courthouse built at Elkins in 1902-04.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.