Chap. 74.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 2854 of the Code of Virginia, as
heretofore amended, relating to courthouses, clerks’ offices, jails, and other

public property. | | [S B 46]
Approved February 26, 1942

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-eight hundred and fifty-four of the Code of Virginia, as hereto-
fore 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 conier 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 according 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 thousand or more according to the last preceding
United States census, as much as fifty acres for county purposes includ-
ing the use 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, available for such purposes, provide offices for the treasurer,
Commonwealth’s attorney, sheriff, commissioner of the revenue, com-
missioner of accounts and division superintendent of schools for such
county or city, and the board of supervisors of any county, or the council
of any city, may, if there be offices in their respective courthouses avail-
able for such purposes, provide offices for the judge of any court sitting
in the said county or city, and any judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals
who may reside in said 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 purposes, and any public room or hall
in the building may be hired for compensation for the purpose of giving
public entertainments, and all moneys received by the counties or cities
under this section, shall constitute a fund to maintain and care for such
building. 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 val-
uable buildings thereon when purchased or have been since constructed
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 build-
ing 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 al-
though 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 buildings or the land occupied by same, is needed
for the purposes of a courthouse, clerk’s office, or jail.