Hardy County still retains the courthouse that was built in 1792 to replace its
original log structure. The courthouse reflects a period in our country's youth when most of the United States was wilderness and many
small towns were just starting to develop. Typical of the period, the courthouse is a two-story,
rectangular-shaped brick building, but has a gable-end roof rather than the more common hipped
roof. Its architectural details generally reflect the British-influenced Georgian and Federal styles popular in the decades just before and after the Revolutionary War. If
counties could afford it, courthouses of this period were often topped with a clock or bell tower, cupola or dome. The Hardy County Courthouse is adorned in this manner,
suggesting that early county officials felt it necessary to give a more stately appearance to what was otherwise a fairly plain and simple building. Constructed before the influence of Jefferson's classicism had
reached West Virginia, the Hardy County Courthouse lacks the classical details that became popular by about 1820
.
Courtesy of the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office.