A sneak peak at the renovated courthouse
Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, September 11, 2024
The Southampton County Courthouse renovation is complete, and its occupants began moving back into it during the week of Sept. 9-13. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
This is the entryway to the renovated Southampton County Courthouse building. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
This is a photo of the renovated Southampton County Courthouse’s ground floor main hallway, taken from the building’s entryway. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
The General District Court in the renovated courthouse features a soundproof vestibule that exists between the glass and wooden doors, insulating the courtroom from noise in the hallway. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
This July 13 photo provides a view of Southampton County General District Court in the renovated courthouse. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
Pictured is the records area for Southampton County General District Court in the renovated Southampton County Courthouse. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
This is the entrance to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, the Victim Witness Assistance Program and restrooms from the main hallway on the first floor of the renovated courthouse. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
This photo from a July 13 tour offers a view of the Southampton Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
Pictured is part of what Southampton Circuit Court Clerk Rick Francis described as “a bank-type tube system” allowing for quick transfer of court documents without having to wait for a recess and hand delivery. This system services the General District and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District courts. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
This is the jury deliberation room for the Southampton County Circuit Court in the renovated courthouse. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
This photo is taken from the doorway jurors will use to enter the Southampton County Circuit Court in the renovated courthouse. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
The Southampton County Circuit Court is located on the second floor of the renovated courthouse and occupies a similar footprint to that of the General District Court downstairs. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
The Southampton County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office has four service windows in the renovated courthouse, doubling the amount it had in the previous iteration of the building. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
The renovated Southampton County Record Room has shrunk slightly in size, but Southampton Circuit Court Clerk Rick Francis has obtained grant funding to improve it in other ways, including funding a non-water-based fire suppression system. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
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Courthouse users began their move back Monday, Sept. 9, to the Southampton County Courthouse building at 22350 Main St. in Courtland. The facility had been under renovation since early 2022.
The move is expected to consume most of the week, with many services set to resume Monday, Sept. 16, if not sooner.
In July, with the renovation nearing completion, Southampton County Circuit Court Clerk Richard L. “Rick” Francis gave The Tidewater News a tour of the building, highlighting some of its key upgrades.
“Overall, I like what I see,” he said. “It’s a far step forward as far as security, it’s far step forward as far as (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance, it is a far step forward I think both for General District and for me, certainly, as far as ability to serve the public on the ease-to-the-public side of things.”
He said he thinks the public is much safer in this version of the courthouse than they were in the older version.
He noted that renovations have facilitated the safe movement of judges, inmates, juveniles and the public within the building, keeping them from having to cross paths. The courthouse has four elevators helping to make this possible.
“There’s a hallway back there for the judges coming straight in from their private parking in the back, and never the twain shall meet between the inmate and the judge and the judge and the public,” Francis said.
The courthouse includes the Southampton County General District Court, the Southampton County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court and, on the second floor, the Southampton County Circuit Court.
Francis noted that servicing the General District Court and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court is a pneumatic tube system similar to the kind found at bank drive-through windows. This system will allow for the quick transfer of court documents without having to wait for court recess and hand delivery.
The renovated courthouse will have greater versatility to accommodate jury trials.
“We have General District/Small Claims Court here that can be used for jury trials if we have overflow or a case that runs long,” Francis said, “and that was one of the headaches that the judge wanted to be able to address is that we need to be able to have jury trials up and down the steps.”
New soundproof vestibules help insulate courtrooms from the noise of people talking in the hallway.
“You could always hear people outside the courtroom talking in the old building in the hallway,” Francis said.
Jurors will benefit from individual or shared monitors to look at evidence.
The courthouse now includes witness rooms and attorney conference rooms.
“The witness rooms even have bathrooms so that if you needed a witness to be kind of secluded for the day, he or she could be back there,” Francis said.
The Southampton County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office has expanded capability to serve the public.
“We’ve got four service windows where before we had two, basically to pay court costs or to file deeds or documents,” Francis said. “Hopefully we’ll get back into doing passports ourselves. We’ve got to get retrained to do that.”
Summarizing the renovated courthouse, Francis said, “It’s a 2024 building at least set up as best it could be using an 1834 footprint in the old brick building. (They) saved what they could, the bricks are three bricks thick, the oldest part of the building you can still see in some of the lockup areas. But the public said, ‘Stay in Courtland,’ and this is, I think, the best accommodation that they could do staying in Courtland, working with limited area and a reasonably tight budget.”
