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The first recorded foray by the colonists into what is now
Brunswick County occurred in 1650. Explorers left Fort
Henry (Petersburg) to follow the Occoneeche trail on an
expedition for trading with the Indians to the south.
By 1714 the area was known well enough that it was
selected by Governor Alexander Spotswood as the site of
Fort Christanna, a trading depot and school for Indian
children.
In 1720 the General Assembly passed an act for “erecting the
Counties of Spotsylvania and Brunswick” which directed
“That five hundred pounds…be paid by the Treasurer to
Nathaniel Harrison, esq., Jonathan Allen, Henry
Harrison, and William Edwards, gentlemen… for a church,
courthouse, prison, pillory and stocks, where they shall
think fit.” The first courthouse was constructed circa
1732 on a site near Cochran. Moved to the east in 1746,
the county seat was moved again in 1783 to be
established at the present site. A wood frame
courthouse, described by a visitor in 1835 as “a very
handsome building” was built in 1784 on the site now
occupied by the Brunswick County Museum.
The Town was created officially by an act of the
General Assembly on 22 January 1814. The act directed
that twenty acres of land belonging to Peggy Williams be
laid off into lots and be know as Lawrenceville.
Legend has it that the name was inspired by a famous
racehorse, Lawrence, owned by a prosperous landowner who
had built a nearby race track at the end of the
eighteenth century.
By 1836 the town was served by at least two stage
routes as noted on the Tourist’s Pocket Map of the
State of Virginia published that year. One ran
north and south between Petersburg and Warrenton, N. C.,
daily. The other, east and west between Lawrenceville
and Halifax Courthouse three times a week.
In 1846 the town was described thus: “It is a neat
village, pleasantly situated on a branch of the Meherrin
River, and contains 2 churches and about 25 dwellings.”
One of the churches, St. Andrew’s Episcopal, constructed
in 1829, continues to serve its parishioners as the
oldest public building extant in Lawrenceville.
Richard H. Sharp gave land on Church Street in 1847 for
construction of the Lawrenceville Methodist Church. The
original building was replaced by the present sanctuary
in 1906.
The Greek Revival courthouse, which remains on
Courthouse Square, was constructed in 1854 to succeed
the late 18th century structure. County court
records were maintained on the first floor there until
completion of the adjacent Clerk’s Building in 1893.
These two buildings are included in the Brunswick
County Courthouse Square nomination approved for
inclusion in the National Register in 1974.
Incorporation for the Town of Lawrenceville was
achieved in 1874. Mr. Charles E. May later recalled the
town of that era as “a very small village consisting of
a courthouse, a few small stores, two blacksmith shops,
a shoe maker’s shop and several dwellings.”
In 1888 James Solomon Russell, an Episcopal priest
born into slavery in 1857, established a parish school
for black children. By 1893 the school was incorporated
and became the Saint Paul’s Normal and Industrial
School. Dr. Russell’s efforts were blessed with
continuing success. The school became Saint Paul’s
College in 1957 and attracts students from around the
globe. Three of the early buildings remaining on campus
have been listed in the National Register of Historic
Places.
The coming of the railroad in 1890 gave an impetus
for growth. Establishment of the Atlantic and Danville
shops in Lawrenceville provided the town with a
significant industrial base. The merchantile buildings
along Main and Hicks Streets were transformed from one
and two story wood frame buildings into two and three
story brick masonry buildings over the next four
decades. Residential areas quickly developed to satisfy
the demand for housing. In 1907 the population was
described as about 2,000 “law-abiding and God-fearing
people.”
A bond issue passed in 1912 to fund construction of
a water filtration plant and distribution system, a
gravity sewage system, and an electric generating
plant. The newly organized volunteer fire department
constructed a firehouse on Sharp Street adjacent to the
then new 100,000 gallon elevated water tank. The
original fire alarm bell was moved to the grounds of the
Municipal Building on Main Street in 1980 where it rests
with an old road marker of 1819 inscribed “45 miles from
the Brunswick Courthouse to Petersburg.”
Lawrenceville continued as the major market center
for the rich agricultural areas of Brunswick County as
evidenced by the tobacco warehouses, cotton gins,
creameries, etc. which came and went during the first
half of the twentieth century.
In 1924 the streets were paved with concrete. Sale
of the electric generating plant in 1925 provided money
for replacing the wood plank sidewalks with concrete.
During the depression years of the thirties, federal
funds were used to build a baseball field and a swimming
pool.
The town now is engaged in a beautification project
which involves replacing downtown sidewalks with brick
and installing new streetlights. The new Albertis S.
Harrison, Jr., Courthouse housing Brunswick’s Circuit,
General District, and Juvenile and Domestic Relations
courts was dedicated on 18 April 1999. Documentation
and field work has been completed for the Lawrenceville
Historic District and the nomination will be submitted
for approval this fall.
Written by Nathaniel Neblett
April 29, 1999 |
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