The Courthouse Square, Updated

The previous post showed a plat of Germanton's Courthouse Square in 1920. Here, I've added a picture of the courthouse and some photographs of the square as it exists today. 

In 1790, after the Fry brothers, Henry and Michael, gave 23 acres of land (Stokes County Deed Book 1, page 42) for the creation of Germanton as a county seat for newly-formed Stokes County, the town's appointed commissioners laid out half-acre lots with the courthouse centered on a crossroads. According to a 1915 article in the Winston-Salem Twin City Daily Sentinel, builders completed the courthouse around 1793, and it served until it burned in the 1820s. The ponderous edifice recognized by students of Stokes County history as the Germanton courthouse is actually the second building and was completed in the early 1830s. 

Germanton's courthouse square anchored the town's civic and commercial activity for 170 years. Even after the legislature created Forsyth County in 1849 and established new county seats in Danbury and Winston, the old courthouse found new life as a store and Masonic Hall, but in 1959, officials demolished the courthouse to ease traffic through town.

facing northeast with the courthouse in the center of the street

from a similar perspective today

1920 plat with letters keyed to the following images

 A. The Bitting-Gibson Storehouse

This is shown on the plat as the post office and S. W. Kurfees House. Although long associated with the Gibson family, my research suggests John Bitting built this around 1792, 

and this building will be the subject of a future post.

 

The Bitting-Gibson Storehouse from a 1941 Winston-Salem Journal photo.

  

 B. Rainey Store-Kiser House

This is shown on the plat as an establishment of E.J. Styers and R. T. Tuttle. Both men were local merchants and B. J. Savage, a prosperous farmer, also owned an interest in the building at one point. Now used as a residence, the Rainey family originally constructed this as a store farther southwest on Main Street. It is unclear when or who moved the building, but it was in its current location by 1900. A second story was added in the twentieth century and since the Kiser family purchased it in 1945, it has been extensively remodeled for residential use.

C. Hardin and Sallie McGee House

 D. Chaffin-Vaughn House, also known as the Boarding House or Chaffin Hotel.

 E. McKenzie Store, also known as the Chaffin Store

One of the local fire departments burned this two-story, wooden store for practice in 1985. The fire quickly got out of hand and several additional fire departments responded.

 

 F. 1950s commercial building on the site of earlier store buildings

 

G. Bank of Stokes County

After decades of neglect, this building was demolished in 2014, although the square column from the corner entrance remains partially intact.