Chap. 110.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 2854 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, as heretofore amended, relating to courthouses, clerk’s offices, jails,
and other public property. [H B 211]

Approved March 5, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-eight hundred and fifty-four of the Code of Virginia, as here-
tofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 2854. There shall be provided by the board of supervisors
of every county and the council for every city a courthouse, clerk’s
office and jail, the cost thereof, and of the land on which they may be,
and of keeping the same in good order, shall be chargeable to the
county or city ; the fee simple of the lands shall be in the county or city,
and the supervisors of the county or the council of the city, may
purchase so much land, as, with what it has, will make two acres,
whereof what may be necessary for the purpose, shall be occupied with
the courthouse, clerk’s office and jail and the residue planted with trees
and kept as a place for the people of the county or city to meet and
confer together. And the board of supervisors of any county may,
if they deem expedient, acquire, in addition to the two acres of land
aforementioned, as much as twenty acres of land, at any point within
their county to be used for county purposes, and in counties having a
density of population of three hundred or more per square mile ac-
cording to the last preceding United States census, and in counties
having a population of not less than twenty thousand, nor more than
forty thousand, and adjoining two or more cities within this State, one
of which cities having a population of one hundred and seventy thou-
sand or more according to the last preceding United States census, as
much as fifty acres for county purposes including the uses of the
local board of health; and for such other purposes as the boards of
supervisors of such counties may deem to be necessary and the board
of supervisors of each county, or the council of each city shall, if there
be offices in the courthouses of the respective counties and cities, avail-
able for such purposes, provide offices for the treasurer, Common-
wealth’s attorney, sheriff, commissioner of the revenue, commissioner
of accounts and division superintendent of schools for such county or
city, and if such offices are not available in the courthouse, same may
be provided by said board of supervisors or council, if they deem it
proper, elsewhere than in the courthouse of said county or city; and
with the approval of the judge of the circuit or corporation court,
any vacant rooms in the courthouse, after furnishing offices to the said
officers, may be rented for a term of not exceeding one year to other
parties for office ptirposes, and any public room or hall in the building
may be hired for compensation for the purpose of giving public enter-
tainments, and all moneys received by the counties or cities under this
section, shall constitute a fund to maintain and care for such build-
ing. Furthermore, where the board of supervisors of any county or
the council or other governing body of any city, in providing land for
the courthouse, clerk’s office, and jail purposes, shall have purchased
or may hereafter purchase or now own any land, a part of which had
valuable buildings thereon when purchased or have been since con-
structed thereon and that portion of the land so occupied by such
buildings, or the buildings thereon, is, in the discretion of such board,
council or other governing body, not required for said purposes, such
board, council or other governing body, if deemed proper by it, may
either lease such building or buildings for private or other purposes,
or remodel and use the same for a market house or for other public
purposes, or both, although such lease or use may reduce the total to
less than two acres, and although as much as two acres may never
have been acquired, but such lease or use shall be first approved by
the judge of the circuit court of the county, or of the corporation
court of the city, as the case may be, and such lease or use shall be
terminated when, in the opinion of such judge such building or build-
ings or the land occupied by same, is needed for the purposes of a
courthouse, clerk’s office, or jail.