[124] Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Minute Book, v. 36, 313; v. 39, 544. On April 7, 1965 the Board of Supervisors voted to construct a new office building and authorize a referendum for a $5,500,000 bond issue for this project. The bonds were approved by the voters, and the building was built on a 35-acre tract belonging to Mary Ambler, which was condemned by the city and then purchased by the county from the condemnor. The architect for the project was William Vosbeck, and the contractor was the Blake Construction Company, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Annual Report, 1968, p. 4.
CHAPTER VII
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE COURTHOUSE AND ITS RELATED BUILDINGS
1. THE COURTHOUSE COMPLEX
Among the courthouses built in England's North American colonies, those of Virginia developed characteristics which expressed peculiarly well the prevailing patterns of landholding and manner of conducting local government. Unlike New England, where each small community had its frame meeting house, containing within its walls "all the ideals, political, moral, intellectual and religious of the people who attended,"[125] the seats of county government in colonial Virginia were centrally located in rural settings. A few county courthouses grew into regional centers of commerce, industry and finance; but most remained independent and apart from any surrounding community, and some may still be seen today standing "as solitary sentinels, symbolic of government."[126]
It was also characteristic of Virginia that these courthouses were not single buildings, but were complexes of several structures. The typical courthouse compound was enclosed by a brick wall, inside which were a courthouse, a jail, a clerk's office, and, sometimes, a row or cluster of offices for lawyers. Invariably, also, an inn or ordinary occupied a site within the compound or immediately adjacent to it. This style of courthouse may be found through Virginia, dating from earliest colonial times; and, although many fine courthouses are found in the early architecture of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, none of these areas developed the design concept of a courthouse compound.
This design concept was used in the courthouses of Fairfax County at Springfield (1742–1752) and Alexandria (1752–1800); and it was followed in the county's third courthouse which was completed in 1800. The courthouse tract was situated near the geographical center of the County, at the intersection of the Little River Turnpike and the old Colchester Road. The tract consisted of four acres, acquired by a deed from Richard Ratcliffe and his wife Serian. Specified in the deed were structures including a courthouse, clerk's office and gaol, "... and every other building and Machine necessary ..."—the latter presumably referring to gallows, pillory, stocks, and the like. The May 1798 Fairfax County Court Order Book did specify that the courthouse should be forty-by-thirty feet with a twelve-foot portico, the gaol forty-by-twenty, the clerk's office twenty-by-eighteen and covered with slate or tile, a gaoler's house twenty-four-by-eighteen feet, and that stocks, pillory and whipping post also be provided by letting the entire "... building of the same to the lowest bidder."[127]
In accordance with statutory requirements, space was delineated for the prison bounds. This was done in March 1800, and the area was described in a survey and report of the commissioners, as follows:[128]
In obedience to the order of the worshipful Court of this County, hereunto annexed, we the subscribers in company with Col. William Payne, the Surveyor of this County, proceeded this thirteenth day of March Eighteen Hundred, to lay off ten acres of ground for the prison rules of this County, and have ascertained and bounded the same by the following meets and boundaries, ... including the said four acres, the Court house, Gaol, Clerk's office, the brick Tavern, Kitchen, Stables and store house, and beg leave to report the same with the plat thereof hereunto also annexed.—Given unto our hands and seals: