By Bonnie Williamson, Spirit of Jefferson
CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — It’s been long overdue, say county officials, but the Jefferson County Courthouse in Charles Town has finally received recognition as a national historic landmark.
But the county courthouse earned its National Historic Landmark designation from the National Park Service designation not because it was the site of the 1859 trial of abolitionist John Brown, even though his trial, as a precursor to the American Civil War, was a monumental event in the county and nation’s history.
Instead, the courthouse on East Washington Street received its national landmark designation because of a series of other treason trials that landed there in 1922, explained Martin Burke, chairman of the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission.
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