The Fairfax County Courthouse Part 10

[154] Fairfax County Court Minute Book, 1863-1867, p. 484.

[155] Fairfax County Court Minute Book, 1875-1879, p. 162.

[156] Fairfax County Court Minute Book, 1882-1885, p. 34.

[157] Examination of the courthouse attic in July 1967 revealed a bell, complete with mounting and wheel, with the following inscription: "TW & RC SMITH ALEXANDRIA 1844." It has not been determined when this bell was installed in or removed from the cupola.

It was rehung in the cupola and rung again in 1976.

[158] Examination of the courthouse attic in July 1967 revealed a bra.s.s chandelier with six arms, approximately 24 inches long, fixed to a central hub. Burners at the end of each arm were fitted to hold gla.s.s globes or lamp chimneys. Fairfax County Court Minute Book, 1888-1892, p. 216. The end of the gaslight era occurred shortly after 1900, when, according to Thomas Chapman, former Clerk of Circuit Court, electric lights were installed in the clerk's office in 1902 and shortly thereafter in the courtroom.

[159] Interview with Thomas Chapman, former Clerk of Circuit Court.

[160] Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Minute Books, No. 17, p. 4, November 21, 1949; No. 18, pp. 2-9, November 15, 1950, pp. 296-298, May 22, 1951.

3. RESTORATION OF THE ORIGINAL WING OF THE COURTHOUSE, 1967

_Origin of the Restoration Project._ After the second addition to the courthouse was completed in 1954, the old courtroom in the original wing of the building ceased to be the focal point of the court's activity. Similarly, it ceased to receive the attention needed to deal with the natural deterioration produced by use and the pa.s.sage of time. By the early 1960's these effects were evidenced by leaking roofs, unreliable plumbing in the heating system, cracked and crumbling plaster, loosened floors and hardware, and the like. In order to retain its usefulness, the original wing of the courthouse needed substantial renovation.

At this time, an interest in the old courtroom was expressed by the Fairfax County Bar a.s.sociation and the county's newly formed Historical Landmarks Preservation Commission which together proposed that the work of renovation be done in such a way as to restore the original appearance of the courtroom. The Bar a.s.sociation formed a Special Committee for Restoration of the Old Court Room under the chairmans.h.i.+p of C. Douglas Adams, Jr., and the a.s.sistance of the Board of Supervisors was sought.[161]

In December 1964, the Board appropriated funds for developing a restoration plan. Walter Macomber, a local restoration architect who had done similar work on a number of early Virginia landmarks, was retained to prepare the necessary plans. In March 1966, the Bar a.s.sociation's Committee reported the completion of this preliminary work to the Board, and successfully secured the latter's approval together with an appropriation of $90,000 for actual construction work. This work was commenced without further delay and was completed in the spring of 1967.[162]

_Problems of the Restoration._ While the work undertaken in 1965 and 1966 was at the time referred to as a restoration, it was in fact impossible under the circ.u.mstances to reproduce with complete accuracy the appearance of the courthouse in 1800. No descriptions of the courtroom or other records of building specifications had been found; nor was any special research in eighteenth century sources undertaken for this purpose. As a result, the work produced a courtroom with idealized colonial-period interior design and furnis.h.i.+ngs in a building sh.e.l.l with reconstructed floor plan and structural design of the early Federal-period (during which it had initially been built).

Numerous difficult problems were faced in this reconstruction, and, for the most part, they were resolved in ways that served primarily to create a room with the atmosphere of Virginia's colonial period, and secondarily to build an authentic replica of the Fairfax courthouse as of any particular historical date.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FLOOR PLANS.]

An initial problem connected with the exterior alterations was that of securing bricks and mortar to match those of the original courthouse.

Bricks secured from a manufacturer of specialty bricks turned out to be a close match for the originals which were thought to have been fired from clay dug in Fairfax County.[164] Specially mixed mortar made from sand, lime and white cement also closely simulated the color and texture of the older mortar. Bricks were laid in Flemish bond which matched the courthouse and part of the old jail building.

Using these new materials, broken and crumbling bricks were replaced throughout the building, and the three long windows on both the north and south sides of the courthouse were altered to form two rows of smaller windows, with the s.p.a.ce between the first and second-floor rows filled with new brickwork. This change in the fenestration restored the building to its appearance as shown in Civil War photographs of the courthouse. Shutters similar to those shown in the same pictures were added to the windows on both floors.

On the roof, some repairs were needed to restore the slate s.h.i.+ngles.

In the cupola, wooden louvres were repaired, the cupola was painted, and a weathervane restored to the top. An existing galvanized sheet metal roof was allowed to remain unchanged.

For the inside of the building there were no photographs or drawings of the earlier periods, and reconstruction was influenced largely by physical evidence disclosed as the interior was systematically dismantled down to the building's outer sh.e.l.l. When woodwork, hardware, plaster and flooring were removed, it was found that much of the framing timber was infested by termites, and had to be replaced.

In this process numerous signs of earlier workmans.h.i.+p were revealed.

Beneath the existing tin-plate ceiling was a plastered ceiling and remnants of a painted frieze of red, yellow, blue and green. Behind this ceiling were laths laid over hand-hewn oak rafters. A few of the original hand-split laths and hand-made nails remained in this ceiling. In its reconstruction, the ceiling was furred and replastered without any decoration. No lathwork was found on the side walls, and in the reconstruction fresh plaster was applied directly to the bricks.[165]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Interior of the gutted courthouse during restoration in 1966. Photo by Lee Hubbard.]

The flooring which was removed from the central section of the courtroom sloped from the back (east end) of the room toward the judge's bench (at the west end). Beneath this floor was an older floor of brick. It was not determined whether this brick work had been the original floor of the courtroom or whether another wooden floor had overlaid it prior to the one just removed. In its reconstruction, however, the architect specified that a flat floor of polished pine should be laid over the bricks.[166]

In one part of the main floor the older brick work was allowed to remain exposed. This was in the vicinity of the fireplaces in the two corners of the open area at the rear (east end) of the courtroom.

These two fireplaces were reopened and restored and their brickwork was extended to form s.p.a.cious hearthstones.

The corner fireplaces showed signs of a three-stage evolution. They were originally used as open fireplaces. Holes in the brickwork above them suggested, however, that at some later time the open fireplaces were replaced by wood-burning or coal-burning stoves standing on the brick hearths with their stovepipes fitted into the chimneys. Finally, when the stoves were replaced by central heating and hot water radiators, the entire fireplace wall was sealed with brick and plastered over. In their restoration the corner fireplaces were reopened and refurbished as they were thought to have appeared in their original condition.

As the side walls were cleared of plaster, they showed signs of staircases from the ground level the balcony along the north as well as the south side of the courtroom. Thus when the stairs along the south wall were replaced, a similar set of stairs was built and installed on the north side of the courtroom. No dates for the original installation or removal of these staircases were determined, and it was presumed that the dual staircases were part of the original design of the courthouse.

A more difficult puzzle was presented by a series of holes in the outer wall aligned at the level of the balcony and about the size used for beams. Speculation by the architect suggested that these holes might have been intended for use in extending the balcony along three sides of the courtroom instead of merely along the back end, or in covering the entire room and creating a full second story for the courthouse. No determination of their use was made, and they were disregarded in the reconstruction of the courtroom.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Interior of restored courtroom facing the judges'

bench. Photo by Charles Baptie, 1971.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Interior of restored courtroom facing balcony. Photo by Lee Hubbard, 1969.]

Still another mystery which was not solved in the restoration concerned the two chimneys located in the corners at the west end of the old courtroom. No fireplaces or hearthstones were found in the courtroom floor, and when the interior was dismantled it was discovered that the chimneys rested on beams above the courtroom ceiling. These chimneys were not utilized in reconstructing the courtroom, and the only suggestion offered was that they probably had been connected by long pipes to stoves in the room below.[167]

Two doors in the west wall of the courtroom on either side of the judge's bench presented a further problem since they were not part of the original 1800 building, but had been part of the addition built in 1929. One of these doors led into a set of judge's chambers and the other (in one corner) opened into a corridor leading to the main portion of the addition running south from the old courthouse. In the restoration these doors were retained, but fitted inconspicuously into the panelling behind the judge's bench. Above the doors, the architect restored two windows which he felt had been part of the original building.[168]

Restoration of the judge's bench brought still more difficulties to maintaining the original design of the courtroom. As plaster was removed from the wall behind the judge's bench, the bricks showed marks of an arch. The judge's bench which ultimately was constructed and installed at the west end of the courtroom was, like the other woodwork, created by the architect "according to patterns used in colonial times."[169]

Other details of the interior were handled the same way. Hardware used by the architect was all new, but used old designs. Since the original colors used in the interior were not determined, the architect used white and gray shades of paint similar to those in colonial buildings.

From the ceiling in the center of the courtroom were hung chandeliers found in the courthouse attic. While not of "colonial" design, they were used because they were considered appropriate due to former a.s.sociation with the courthouse. And, as noted earlier, the pews which possibly had been obtained from the Jerusalem Baptist Church were retained in the restored courtroom.[170]

_General Setting and Building Site._ The original Fairfax County courthouse today comprises the north end section of the courthouse building. Together with its immediately adjacent grounds, the present courthouse complex occupies almost the entire four-acre tract which was the original site. This tract still forms a square near the center of the City of Fairfax, at the intersections of two main roads, Routes 236 (Little River Turnpike) and 123 (Chain Bridge Road). The general setting is gently rolling terrain, and the courthouse site is on a slightly higher elevation than the surrounding area, with stone retaining walls on the two sides facing the turnpike and road. On the west side of the courthouse building is a parking lot occupying approximately two acres. The twelve-story county office building (Ma.s.sey Building) completed in 1969 is located approximately 200 yards south and west of the courthouse.

_The Exterior_

_Overall Dimensions._ The restored, original courthouse building is a plain rectangle, 61 feet long by 32 feet wide. It is oriented with the long sides facing north and south, with the main entrance at the east end of the building. A portico extends across the entire east end of the building, covering an area 12 by 32 feet. The height of the building at the gable ends is 32 feet; and the height of the eaves from the ground is 21 feet.

_Foundations._ As originally built, the courthouse rested on brick foundation walls, anch.o.r.ed at the corners in brick piers, with a crawl s.p.a.ce of approximately 1-1/2 to 2 feet in height beneath all but the front (east) quarter of the floor s.p.a.ce. Additional brick bases, approximately 18 inches square and resting on the ground, were located in the crawl s.p.a.ce beneath the two columns supporting the courthouse balcony. In the late nineteenth century, a partial bas.e.m.e.nt was dug beneath the central section of the courtroom.[171]

As reconstructed, the exterior foundation walls were pointed up and repaired, and were strengthened by the addition of several new footings. Across the back (west end) of the building, the crawl s.p.a.ce was deepened to a uniform 3 feet, and four 12 12 inch brick piers were placed on concrete footings. In the center section of the courthouse, the bas.e.m.e.nt walls were extended 1 foot to carry the joists of the new floor, the outside entrance was closed up, and a new staircase for the interior entrance was built at the south end of the bas.e.m.e.nt. Next to the bas.e.m.e.nt toward the front (east end) of the building, another crawl s.p.a.ce (measuring 8-1/2 25-1/2 feet) was deepened to a uniform 3 feet, and a new wall was built on the east side, extending the full width of the building. This new wall was 8 inches thick, and constructed of cinder block and brick, anch.o.r.ed with 16 16 12 inch concrete footings. Beneath both crawl s.p.a.ces and the bas.e.m.e.nt a 3-inch thick concrete slab was laid. The crawl s.p.a.ce did not extend to the front exterior wall of the building. A s.p.a.ce of 13 30 feet across the front of the building, consisting of the area beneath the open entrance foyer of the courtroom, originally had been covered only by a layer of bricks resting on the bare ground. As reconstructed, this brick was taken up and re-laid on a 4-inch thick slab of concrete which had been poured on a base of 4 inches of crushed stone covered by polyethylene film.

_Walls._ The exterior walls of the courthouse are constructed of red brick, with new bricks specially selected during the 1967 restoration to match the remaining original materials, and laid in Flemish bond, 1-1/2 feet thick. Across the front of the building, the portico is entered through a series of arches supporting the second-floor front section of the building. The three arches across the front of the building are 7 feet wide and 11 feet high at the center of the arch.

The arches at the north and south ends of the portico are 6-1/2 feet wide by 11 feet high. The brick columns supporting the arches are 1-1/2 feet square. The arches and columns are plain except for white marble keystones and white marble slabs, 6 inches thick, placed at the foot of each arch and serving as bases for the columns.

_Chimneys._ All five of the chimneys which the courthouse had in the early nineteenth century were retained in the reconstruction. The two chimneys on each of the north and south sides stand at points which correspond to the four corners of the courtroom, and rise 11-1/2 feet above the roofline at the eaves. In the center of the table end at the front of the building, the fifth chimney stands, extending 5 feet above the ridge of the roof. All five chimneys are corbelled with two courses of brick at the top, and with a single course of brick 1-1/2 feet below the chimney top. All of the chimneys measure 2 feet by 1 foot 9 inches.

_Doors and Windows._ In the 1967 reconstruction of the courthouse, the fenestration was changed to resemble the appearance of the building in about 1861. Accordingly the three tall (14-1/2 foot) existing windows on the north and south sides of the building were converted into two sets of smaller windows, one above the other, and regularly s.p.a.ced along the sides of the courtroom. In the upper row, a fourth window was located over the arch in the portico, and serves the rooms in the second-floor chamber at the front of the building. The chamber also has two windows on the front of the building.

The upper row windows are of a double-hung sash design, with 12 over 8 panes (9 inches 10-3/4 inches) set in wooden frames and sills.

Overall dimensions of these windows are 4 5-1/2 feet. The three windows on the lower level are slightly larger--4 feet 6 feet 9 inches, and have 12 over 12 panes. Both rows of windows are shuttered; those of the upper row are louvred, and those in the lower row have solid panels.[172]

On the ground level at the front of the building, the main doorway of the courthouse is located in the center of the wall, and flanked by one window on each side. The door is panelled, and 8-1/2 4-1/2 feet in size.

In the reconstruction, new window sashes and a new door were installed, but the existing jambs were used wherever possible. All shutters, glazing materials and hardware used in the reconstruction were new.

_Roof._ The original roof of the courthouse was covered with slate s.h.i.+ngles, and the reconstruction of the building merely applied repairs to these s.h.i.+ngles as needed. Little of the slate which remained in 1967 was thought to have dated from the original construction, however, because of the extensive repairs and renovations carried out after the Civil War.

_Cupola._ The cupola, located at the ridge of the roof, 9-1/2 feet from the gable end at the front, was part of the original design of the courthouse and houses a bell once used to announce the convening of the court sessions. The cupola was constructed of white pine, and consists of a square box in which is mounted an octagonal compartment with louvred sides. Topping the panelled portion of the cupola is an onion-shaped dome, culminating in a ball which, according to photographs over the years, served as a base for a weathervane or flagpole. In reconstruction, a weathervane found in the courthouse attic was installed on the cupola's top. The roofing of the cupola dome is sheet metal.

_Ornamentation._ The overall appearance of the courthouse is plain, and, with the possible exception of the cupola, there is only one feature which shows the intention to combine ornamentation with functionalism in the architectural design. This feature is a round "fan window" framed by a circle of bricks in the center of the gable end of the building's front wall. The lower half of this window consists of four pie-shaped wooden panels. The upper half of the window consists of louvres.