THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604260718
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY GEORGE HOLBERT TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Virginia's Historic Courthouses
John O. Peters and Margaret T. Peters
University Press of Virginia 249 pp. $39.95
There is only one criticism that can be leveled at this otherwise satisfactory book. It is too large to be enjoyed with any degree of comfort. That is a pity, for not only is its text an authoritative account of all of Virginia's state as well as federal courthouses, but its superb color illustrations are refreshingly original minor works of photographic art.
Unfortunately, the combination of the text and the large size of the pictures it illustrates has resulted in what is commonly known as a coffee-table book, beautiful to browse through once, but then relegated to a flat surface in need of colorful decoration.
Apart from that objection, not enough can be said in favor of the Virginia's Historic Courthouses, a first in its particular category as far as Virginia is concerned.
John O. Peters, an attorney and executive director of the Bar Association of the City of Richmond, is also an innovative photographer, and the striking images he has captured on film to illustrate his wife's text will long remain to show future generations exactly how the buildings appeared in 1996.
Margaret T. Peters has also contributed largely toward making the book a definitive record of the histories of the same buildings. Not only has she stressed their architectural qualities, she has also included many fascinating details concerning the often epoch-making trials that have been conducted within their walls.
Margaret Peters was the ideal historian to set down these facts as she has long been associated with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Both the Peterses are long-time students of the Old Dominion's colorful history, their expertise in this instance having also been augmented by the Bar Association of Virginia, which sponsored the highly specialized study.
Of particular interest to readers within the circulation area of The Virginian-Pilot will be the account of two earlier courthouses now used for other purposes. These are the former Norfolk City Hall, dating from 1847, now the MacArthur Memorial, and the former 1849 Norfolk County Courthouse in downtown Portsmouth, now used as a civic art center.
After a foreword by Richmond native and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., the book is divided into five chronological sections. The first gives a detailed account of all of Virginia's courthouses dating from the pre-Revolutionary period. The next section, covering buildings erected between 1776 and 1830, stresses the influence exerted by Thomas Jefferson and the Classical Revival that resulted in political structures resembling utilitarian Greek and Roman temples.
After this fascinating period, the Peterses have concentrated on the more architecturally eclectic buildings dating from the close of the Civil War to 1902. Finally, the book ends with an account of Virginia courthouses dating from 1902 to 1941.
Provided with a detailed map showing the locations of all the buildings included, the book also contains a comprehensive index, ample notes to each section and a list of the many sources that the Peterses used in producing the volume.
They include an apt quotation from two writings of Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), the great English architect, that epitomizes the importance of the type of structures that the Peterses have so lovingly covered. It reads: ``Architecture has its political uses. Publick Building being the Ornament of a Country, it establishes a Nation, draws People and Commerce, makes the People love their native Country which passion is the original of all of the great actions in a Common-wealth.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
The former 1849 Norfolk County Courthouse in downtown Portsmouth, at
Court and High streets, is now used as a civic art center.
by CNB