Kanawha County Courthouse is a historic courthouse

Courthouse

A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply...

 located at Charleston, West Virginia

Charleston, West Virginia

Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...

. It is located across from the Charleston City Hall

Charleston City Hall

Charleston City Hall is a historic city hall located at Charleston, West Virginia. It was constructed in 1921 in the Neoclassical style. It is located opposite the Kanawha County Courthouse, at the center of downtown...

, and is a block-long structure constructed in 1892 of rock-face masonry.

It is noteworthy for its picturesque massing and precise Richardsonian Romanesque

Richardsonian Romanesque

Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...

 design.

Additions were made to the original building in 1917 and 1924. The twin-towered Virginia Street elevation is the glory of the Kanawha County Courthouse. Roofs of each tower are pyramidal with chamfered corners. The belfry

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...

 openings are arched and flanked with smooth grey limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 masonry colonnettes.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 1978.