The Fairfax County Courthouse

by Ross De Witt Netherton; Ruby Waldeck

Bench, Bar and Jury Box. Across the front of the courtroom is a railing separating the judges bench, jury box, and space for counsel tables from the central section of the courtroom. This railing, similar to those of the staircases and balcony, stands 2 feet 81/2 inches high. Gates 3 feet wide and mounted on double spring hinges are placed in the railing at the head of each side aisle in the central section. Each gate has an S-curve wooden support built into it for added support.

The enclosure formed by the railing or bar is raised 71/2 inches above the floor level of the central section, and is floored with yellow pine, tongue-and-groove, 3-inch wide flooring. In the center of this enclosure, against the west wall of the courtroom is the judge's bench, flanked on its right by the witness stand. The bench itself is relatively small, measuring 6 feet 5 inches across and 4 feet 7 inches from back to front. Three steps on each side permit access from both directions, and have balustrades on the front side similar to the railings and other balustrades in the courtroom.

On the wall behind the judge's bench, there are two, high 12-over-8 pane windows, backed by closed, full-louvred shutters. Behind the shutters is the solid plaster wall of the present courthouse's main corridor. Between and below these windows is a wooden raised-panel screen serving as a back for the judge's bench. Two 6-panelled sections at each end of this screen are flanked by fluted pilasters with modified capitals supporting a plain entablature. Between these sections are 3 panels, the two on either end being composed of 3 tiers of panels edged with fluted pilasters. The center element of this panel consists of two large raised rectangular panels topped by a semi-circular louvred wooden fan design, then a round keystone arch, the whole portion of the composition topped by a high monumental pediment. At its center point, the height of this composition is 8 feet 6 inches.

This ornamental panelling also covers the space where doorways previously had been cut for passage between the courtroom and other portions of the courthouse as they were built from 1930 onward. Prior to the 1967 reconstruction, a doorway in the west wall was located on the judge's left side as he sat on the bench. As presently reconstructed, this doorway has been closed and covered by panelling, but a new door was cut through on the judge's right-hand side, and the inside of the door is constructed and fitted so as to serve as the end piece of the ornamental woodwork behind the judge's bench.

The jury box is in the southwest corner of the courtroom. Across the front of the box is a panelled solid railing, standing 2 feet 8 inches from the floor of the west end of the courtroom. The jury box contains 2 rows of benches, each raised an 8-inch step above the one in front. The front row is 9 feet 3 inches long, with aisles 18 inches wide at each end allowing passage from the second row to the front, and openings in the railing. Not having this function of access, the back row of the jury benches is 14 feet 1 inch in length. Benches in the jury box are designed and constructed similar to those of the balcony.

The witness box is located between the judge's bench and the jury box. This box is constructed of solid wooden screen, painted white and topped with a cherry handrail. The screen forming the back of the box is plain; the screen at the front is in the shape of half of an octagon, and the face of each element contains a single recessed panel similar to those on the front of the judge's bench. The side of the witness box facing the jury is open to allow entry into the box, and the side next to the judge's bench is formed by the side of that fixture. The flooring of the box is made of 3-inch wide, yellow pine boards, finished naturally, and the flooring is raised one step (71/2 inches) from the courtroom floor. The dimensions of the box are 2 feet 10 inches across and 3 feet 8 inches from back to front.

Illumination of the area of the bench and jury box is provided by a variety of fixtures. On the wall at the rear of the jury box two carriage gate or guardhouse lanterns are attached. Opposite these, on the wall at the north side of the room, two other, similar lanterns are located. In the ceiling above the area enclosed by the bar, 10 recessed lights are installed in two rows of 4 lights across the front and rear sections, and a pair are located equidistant between these rows. Hanging from the ceiling over the central area are chandeliers which were found in the attic of the courthouse during the 1967 reconstruction, and refurbished and wired for electric lights. The lighting fixtures consist of six 24-inch arms, made of hollow brass tubing, extending out from a central hub. The hub, in the shape of a cup and decorated with a series of radial ridges, is on the lower end of a 38-inch hollow brass shaft, equipped at the top with a hook for suspension from the ceiling. As installed in the courthouse, each chandelier hangs from a fixture in the ceiling by a metal chain approximately 5 feet long. At the end of each arm of the chandelier are plain disc-shaped bases (3 inches in diameter) which holds one candle-shaped electric socket and a glass hurricane lamp chimney.

Basement. A small basement measuring 11 feet in width lies across the center section of the courthouse. An interior entrance to this basement is provided by a staircase located at its south end. This stairway, 3 feet 6 inches wide with 73/4 inch risers, has 10 steps, and is not panelled or painted. At the present time, the basement is used to house heating and air conditioning equipment.

Small windows are located at both the north and south ends of the basement. Approximately square, these windows measure 2 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 9 inches, with 3-over-2 panes (6 by 12 inches). Both have sills composed of a single slab of stone 2 inches thick. Both also are below ground level, and open into brick-lined spaces for light and air dug out by the wall's foundations. The space for the window on the north side of the building measures 4 feet 1 inch by 3 feet 3 inches. On the south side of the building, however, the dug-out space measures 7 feet 8 inches by 2 feet 9 inches and suggests that this was, at an earlier date, the point where an outside entrance to the basement was located. This is corroborated by markings on the inside of the basement wall which show that a doorway in the north end of the basement has been bricked up, and also that a second window similar to the existing one has been closed up with bricks, leaving the sill slab in place. From the basement, galvanized steel ducts covered with insulating material are run through the crawl spaces beneath the courtroom floor to outlets and intakes for circulation of air. These openings are located in the sills of the recessed windows of the courtroom and in the bases of the benches for spectators and jurors, and are covered with steel grilles painted to blend with the fixtures in which they are set.