Book by Peters, Margaret T.;Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission

Guidebook to Virginia's Historical Markers

History

Peters, Margaret T.

Americas

University of Virginia Press

Featuring 140 color photographs of Virginia's courthouses, this book is a visual treat as well as an innovative approach to history and architecture. It contains a wealth of social and architectural history. In addition to giving an overview of the history of 126 courthouses, the authors recount some notable legal proceedings that took place in the courtrooms, particularly those cases that involved societal change and the ongoing struggle for civil liberties. John O. and Margaret T. Peters approach their subject chronologically in five chapters: The Colonial Courthouses; The National Period, 1776-1830; The Antebellum Period, 1831-61; Recovery and Growth, 1865-1902; and The New Century, 1902-41. They examine historic structures ranging from the Essex County courthouse (1729) and the King William County courthouse, built ca. 1725 and one of the oldest public buildings in continuous use in the nation, to the newer historic courthouses such as Richmond's massive Supreme Court/State Library Building, dedicated in 1941. Virginia's Historic Courthouses provides a thorough examination of the state's courthouses. It traces the evolution of courthouse design, places the buildings in historical context, and analyzes the symbolic significance of Virginia's houses of justice. The book will appeal to a broad audience of interested general readers, and architectural historians, lawyers, judges, architects, and preservationists.

Virginia's Historic Courthouses

Peters, John O.

Arts & Photography

Conserving the Commonwealth is the book that anyone interested in conservation and environmental issues has been waiting for. This history describes the earliest days of Virginia's environmental movement, recounting the efforts of a farsighted group of leaders to preserve Virginia's priceless resources--open land, waterways, and historic sites--and to create new parks within reach of all the state's citizens.
In 1965, Governor Albertis Harrison selected State Senator FitzGerald Bemiss to chair a commission-the Virginia Outdoor Recreation Study Commission-to make recommendations for improving the state's outdoor recreation facilities. Inspired by Bemiss's leadership and a newly awakened concern for the environment, the commission reached far beyond its mandate, addressing the entire range of the Commonwealth's natural and man-made resources: open land, pristine waterways, and historic buildings. The result was Virginia's Common Wealth, a publication that inspired the environmental movement for the balance of the twentieth century and served as the framework for Virginia's public efforts to conserve its natural and historic resources.
Bemiss gained powerful advocates for Virginia's environment in governors Linwood Holton and Gerald L. Baliles, delegate Tayloe Murphy, attorney George Freeman, and law professor A. E. Dick Howard. Beyond the public administrative and legal history of governmental environmental efforts, Conserving the Commonwealth recounts the efforts of private groups such as the Virginia chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the APVA Preservation Virginia, which all fought valiantly to preserve Virginia's fragile open spaces and irreplaceable historic sites and buildings. The book also points out that in spite of all those early efforts, the state of Virginia's environmental health today is deeply threatened.
In his afterword, FitzGerald Bemiss reflects on the continuing need for regional planning, an efficient public transportation system, and funding for existing programs. Three appendices provide tabular information on Virginia's state parks and conservation easements, and include the text of a 1965 article by FitzGerald Bemiss on urban political needs. The book will be of interest to planners, environmentalists, and preservationists, and to all who care about preserving Virginia's natural resources.

Conserving the Commonwealth: The Early Years of the Environmental Movement in Virginia

Business & Money

Economics

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Books by Peters, Margaret T.