Brentsville Courthouse turns 200; Year-long celebration starts April 30, ‘Bicentennial Court Day’

This year, several celebrations are planned as Brentsville Courthouse, a former Prince William County seat, turns 200 years old.

County leaders just announced “Brentsville Bicentennial Court Day” on Saturday, April 30. This will be the largest bicentennial celebration honoring Brentsville. The area was once a bustling community full of agriculture and trade. Activities will include mock trials, historic tradespeople, militia muster, markets, music, food, and demonstrations.

To help mark the occasion, a new LOVEworks sign, commonly found throughout Virignia, was installed in front of the historic courthouse that will be up for the remainder of the year. A new book about the history of Brentsville will also be published later this year, and the courthouse gift shop will feature new merchandise for sale, including Brentsville t-shirts.

“We hope you will join us for a historic Court Day where you can experience what Brentsville was like during its days as the county seat of Prince William County,” said Paige Gibbons Backus, Brentsivlle courthouse Historic Site Manager.

Later in the year, additional programs will highlight Brentsville’s history and the events while Brentsville served as the county seat. These included our “World of 1822 Tours” held in January, “Freedmen’s Bureau Tours” in June, as well as a special Brentsville town tour as part of this year’s “Historic Prince William Towns Walking Tours” series that will take visitors through sections of Brentsville that are not typically open to the public, on July 15.

The two-centuries-old courthouse is part of the Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre, a 28-acre historic site located in Bristow, Virginia, managed by the Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation, a division of Prince William County Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

The designation helps tells the story of 19th & 20th century Prince William County life through five historic buildings: the courthouse build in 1822, a recently-restored jail also built the same year, a church built in 1880, an 1850 farmhouse, and a one-room schoolhouse that served the children of Brentsville from 1929 to 1944.

In 2004, county leaders created the Prince William Historic Preservation Department, which now manages Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre. Over the past 30 years, the Prince William County Government acquired more historic properties, including Ben Lomond and Rippon Lodge.

“Our office was created specifically to care for county-owned historic structures, archaeological resources, historic landscapes, artifacts, and collections, as well as to help preserve and interpret Prince William County’s history through these buildings,” said Gibbons Backus