Dickerson's Chapel AME Church / Orange County Courthouse (third)

Originally constructed in 1790 as the third Orange County Courthouse, this building has been moved and remodeled several times with the current exterior dating to 1947. The front-gabled frame building is five bays deep and has a brick veneer with pointed-arch double-hung stained-glass windows on the right (west) and left (east) elevations. An entrance tower on the façade has a double-leaf four-panel door with pointed-arch stained-glass transom and is accessed by an uncovered concrete stoop with brick detailing and a metal railing. The top of the tower tapers slightly and has pointed-arched louvered vents at the second-floor level and a metal- covered, four-sided steeple. The apse on the rear (south) elevation features a canted bay under a hipped roof. A later, hip-roofed wing projects from the left rear (southeast). In 1845 the former courthouse was purchased by Rev. Elias Dodson and moved to its present site in 1847. The First Baptist Church was formally organized here in 1853. In 1866, it became the property of the Friends of Philadelphia who conveyed the property to the Trustees of the A.M.E. Church of Hillsborough in 1886. The building was remodeled in 1891, and again in 1947 when it was encased in brick.