Hampshire County Executive Summary

The building was originally built in 1837 and was rebuilt in 1922. The main courthouse is approximately 14,850 square feet and consists of a basement, 1^st, 2^nd, and attic levels. There are four buildings in the courthouse complex, one of which is offsite.

Hampshire County is one of the fastest growing counties in West Virginia. Space is extremely limited at the courthouse complex. There is no more space available for the storage of documents in the main courthouse. The law library is scattered throughout the courthouse due to lack of space. Office space is also cramped in the main courthouse. The family court system rents a facility and the prosecuting attorney is part time and works in his private office. It is anticipated that Hampshire County will go from a class VI to a class V county in the near future and this will require that the prosecuting attorney be full time. The prosecuting attorney would then require offices in the complex. We propose converting the existing main courthouse into administrative offices and adding a 50,000 square foot judicial annex. The new judicial annex would house the circuit courts, magistrate courts and family courts. The new prosecuting attorneys office would be located in the remodeled main courthouse building. The existing magistrate court building (offsite) would be abandoned and sold. The Old Jail and WPA buildings would be demolished. This site would be used for the new judicial annex.

We recommend demolishing the existing jail/annex and the WPA stone annex building and moving those functions into the judicial annex that is proposed on the main courthouse report. The new annex would be built in the space that this jail occupies. We also recommend moving the offsite magistrate office into the new judicial building.

Total cost: $11,210,520

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