Court Square in the 1850s
Written by Harriet Lee Welch

 A stroll down Main Street in 1850 would have been quite different than today. The street was called Irish Street and you would be walking on plank sidewalks, dodging stray dogs,
roaming hogs and open culverts. In the middle of the street a group of local boys might be playing Bandy, an early game similar to hockey. Hotels, general stores, jewelers, tailors, taverns and residences crowd around Court Square, with many people living in rooms above their businesses. A stone arch bridge spans the spring branch, which flows across the street from the Big Spring to Judge Kenney’s imposing home (site of Denton’s Building).

In the middle of the Square is the Court House, the third on this site. It is a two-story red brick building with a unique weathervane on top of a cupola. The weathervane consists of a
round ball with a golden fish above it and is slightly bent, the result of either a bad storm or the devil using it as a toothpick, depending on who is telling the story. A fence encloses the Court House lot providing a handy place to hitch the many horses brought to town.

Samuel Shacklett’s store is on the northeast corner of the Square (site of Court Square One), where you can buy almost anything from hoop skirts to hardware. On the southeast corner is the old Washington Tavern  (site of Bank of America) with Robert Bowman’s saddle shop and other businesses on the first floor. Dr. Waterman’s old stone house (West end Roger Ritchie Law Office), one of the first built in the town, is on the southwest corner. Continuing around the Square you will find the M.H. Effinger & Bro.’s store, general dealers in dry goods, groceries, hardware, etc., in the old Sites House (site of County Judicial Building).

The newly built Exchange Hotel (later called the Warren Hotel), built by Andrew Irick, houses the Bank of Rockingham in the east end of the building  (site of Presbyterian Church  parking lot). The bank was organized in 1854 and was the first bank in the town.

For entertainment the men might visit Sibert & Bowman’s billiard saloon and bowling alley in the old Pollock’s Hotel, also known as the Mansion House and Spotswood Hotel at various times. This was on the east side of Irish Street, diagonally across from the Washington House.

Harrisonburg was incorporated as a town in 1849, and the 1850s saw the town fathers attempting to improve the downtown area by adding curbing and brick sidewalks, covering culverts, building new bridges and passing high taxes on female dogs in order to control their number. The boundaries of the town were Bruce Street on the South, High Street (called West Street) on the west, Gay Street on the North and the location of Mason Street, not yet built, on the east. Within these boundaries lived 700 to 800 people, along with a large variety of businesses.

Located on a major crossroad, the county seat of one of the largest counties in the state, and well known for the quality and abundance of its horse sales, Harrisonburg was a bustling commercial center destined to grow to the thriving city of today.