Chatham, VA

Chatham is Pittsylvania County's seat, a Virginia town that spent its first decades under another name. The courthouse moved to this part of the county in 1777; a new town was established as Competition in 1806, then renamed Chatham by the General Assembly in 1852 and incorporated in 1874. The courthouse role still sets the town's rhythm. Chatham Hall began just east of town in 1894, and the Chatham Training School, now Hargrave Military Academy, followed west in 1909. Add the historic district and the old tavern-turned-house, and Chatham reads as a courthouse town with two boarding-school landmarks and a name borrowed from an English political friend of the colonies.