Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Charles City, VA

Charles City is a tiny unincorporated community and census-designated place that serves as the county seat of Charles City County, Virginia.

The community is centered on the Charles City County Court House — it is also known by the variant names Charles City Court House and Charles City Courthouse — at the intersection of State Routes 5 and 155.

The surrounding county began as Charles Cittie, founded by the Virginia Company in 1619 as one of the first four boroughs of colonial Virginia and named for Prince Charles, the future King Charles I; the county took its present name in 1643.

English settlers reached the area as early as 1607, on land long inhabited by the Chickahominy, Paspahegh and Weyanock peoples.

Courthouses for the county stood successively at Westover and City Point before one was built at Charles City in the 1750s, and the historic courthouse still standing in the community dates to that era.

Charles City was long the central point of the county's free African American population, a role it held for many years even before the Civil War.

Despite its tiny size, Charles City functions as the county's hub of government and services, with the courthouse, a library, a bank, a post office and local schools.

Charles City was first listed as a census-designated place in the 2010 census, when it had 133 residents.

The community's population fell about 22 percent over the decade to just 104 residents in the 2020 census, spread across about 2.7 square miles — a density of under 40 people per square mile.

Charles City County as a whole had only 6,773 residents in the 2020 census, making it one of Virginia's smallest counties by population, and it was the birthplace of two United States presidents, William Henry Harrison and John Tyler.