The Fairfax County Courthouse   By: Ross De Witt Netherton (1918-)

The Fairfax County Courthouse

[Illustration]

The Fairfax County Courthouse

BY

ROSS D. NETHERTON

AND

RUBY WALDECK

Published by the Fairfax County Office of Comprehensive Planning under the direction of the County Board of Supervisors in cooperation with the Fairfax County History Commission

July 1977

The following history publications are available from:

Fairfax County Administrative Services Fairfax Building 10555 Main Street Fairfax, Va. 22030 703 691 2781

Beginning at a White Oak.... The Patents and Northern Neck Grants of Fairfax County, Virginia Mitchell

Carlby Spann

Centreville : Its History and Architecture Smith

Colchester : Colonial Port on the Potomac Sprouse

Colvin Run Mill Netherton

Dunbarton, Dranesville, Virginia Poland

The Fairfax County Courthouse Netherton and Waldeck

The Fairfax County Courthouse 1800 OCP Brochure

Fairfax County in Virginia: Selections from Some Rare Sources OCP

Fairfax County Tour Map OCP and History Commission

Fairfax Family in Fairfax County: A Brief History Kilmer and Sweig

Historic Preservation for Fairfax County OCP

Historical Highlights of Bull Run Regional Park Cooling

Huntley Wrenn

Indices to Selected Maps from Hopkins' Atlas, 1879 McMillion

Maplewood Rafuse

Moorefield DiBacco

Mount Air Sprouse

Registrations of Free Blacks, Fairfax County, Virginia, 1822 1861 ed. Sweig

Wakefield Chapel Evans

Sully: The Biography of a House Gamble Book available from the Fairfax County Park Authority

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 77 84441

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION 1

I. FAIRFAX COUNTY'S EARLY COURTHOUSES: 1742 1800 3

II. THE PROVIDENCE COURTHOUSE AND ITS RELATED BUILDINGS: 1800 1860 12

III. THE COUNTY COURT AND ITS OFFICERS 18

IV. THE WAR YEARS: 1861 1865 33

V. THE YEARS OF REBUILDING: 1865 1903 42

VI. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY COURTHOUSE 50

VII. THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE COURTHOUSE AND ITS RELATED BUILDINGS 58

1. The Courthouse Complex 58

2. The Courthouse 73

3. Restoration of the Original Wing of the Courthouse, 1967 87

APPENDIXES

A. County Court Clerks: 1742 1976 107

B. Justices and Judges: 1742 1976 108

C. Portraits in the Old Courthouse Biographies 117

D. Clerk's Office Specifications, Alexandria Gazette , July 15, 1853 121

E. Schedule of Reconstruction of the Courthouse, 1967 123

LIST OF SOURCES 127

ILLUSTRATIONS

Front Cover Courthouse about 1920

Back Cover Court papers, 1976

Five Colonial Justices of the Fairfax County Court: George Washington; George Mason; Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax; George William Fairfax; and Bryan, eighth Lord Fairfax 2

Cartograph of Alexandria Courthouse Square 6

Surveys of courthouse lot, 1798 1924 15

Civil War view, 1862 32

Hopkins' map of Fairfax Court House, 1879 44

Marr monument's dedication, 1904 49