Formed May 1, 1761 (47th county)
Amherst County (32,353), Amherst (2,231)
The Modern red brick structure replaced an 1872 building. It is located on Taylor Street at Goodwin Street. United States Highway 29 Business is two blocks to the northwest of the location. The current courthouse was built in 1997 using the designs of Hancock-Fuqua-Robertson. Veteran memorials are on the old courthouse’s grounds. Many of the Virginia counties have their county seat at a location named after the county followed by the words Court House. Some counties maintain this in their official name. The county was created on May 1, 1761 from Albemarle County as the 47th county. Cablesville was the first county seat until 1762 when Amherst took over. The county and county seat are named for Jeffrey Amherst, Governor of Virginia.
Amherst County government consists of a sheriff and 5 Supervisors. Five Circuit Court Judges and Eight District Court Judges serve Amherst, Bedford, Campbell, and Nelson counties and Lynchburg City and Fifty-nine Magistrate Court Judges serve Amherst, Alleghany, Augusta, Bath, Bedford, Botetourt, Campbell, Craig, Franklin, Henry, Highland, Nelson, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Roanoke, and Rockbridge counties and Buena Vista, Covington, Danville, Lexington, Lynchburg, Martinsville, Roanoke, Salem, Staunton, and Waynesboro cities. The county is in the western part of the state. Roanoke, Virginia is southwest and Richmond, Virginia is east of the county. The county center is 4.6 miles West of Amherst. The county is surrounded clockwise by Nelson, Appomattox, and Campbell counties and the City of Lynchburg and Bedford and Rockbridge counties.
The area of the county is 479 square miles. It is 31 out of 133 in the state. It ranks 56 out of 133 in population in the state. It has a density of 67.54 persons per square mile making it 82 out of 133 in the state. Amherst County has 6.9% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 29 enters the county from the northeast, Nelson County, and exits to the southeast, the City of Lynchburg. United States Highway 60 goes northwest to east from Rockbridge County to Nelson County. United States Highway 501 comes from Rockbridge County, west, to Bedford County. The county resembles a sack of groceries tipping to the west. Amherst is located in the southeast quarter of the county. Amherst is the county seat and, as the only incorporated city, it is the largest city. It is 6.9% of the county population. This county is in the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Amherst
