ty Government_, pp. 249, 271; _Code of Virginia_
(1950 Edn.) Title 33, c. 1.

[110] Porter, _County Government_, pp. 258-59, 289.

[111] _Ibid._, p. 177.

[112] Ralph McDanel, _The Virginia Constitutional Convention of
1891-92_, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1928), p. 103,
reports that R. Walton Moore was one of Fairfax County's delegation to
the convention, and that he argued strongly for the social values of
retaining the court. The motion to retain the monthly county court was
defeated, however, by a vote of 41 to 19.

[Illustration: The dedication of the Marr Monument in 1904. Copy by
Lee Hubbard.]

CHAPTER VI

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY COURTHOUSE

The twentieth century brought Fairfax County more than a new
constitutional framework; it brought a new outlook and spirit.
Something of this spirit was reflected in the following quotation from
a short history and prospectus of the County published by the County
Board of Supervisors in 1907:

Verily, Fairfax County, old in its history, and hoary in its
traditions, is throbbing with a new life and enterprise. Only
yesterday were her advantages and possibilities appreciated; yet,
today she is attracting settlers from all parts of the Union, and
even from foreign countries. Certainly no other section extends a
more cordial welcome and more attractive inducements to the
investor and home-seeker.[113]

If this statement seemed perhaps a bit too eager, it was at least
hopeful and optimistic in contrast to the spirit that had prevailed
during the long years of reconstruction. It expressed a feeling of
confidence that came from having weathered the depression which
followed the Panic of 1893 better than many parts of the country.[114]

[Illustration: "The Tavern," across Little River Turnpike from the
courthouse. Photo by Helen Hill Miller, 1932.]

[Illustration: The courthouse about 1907.]

One reason for this was Fairfax County's expanding contacts with the
city of Washington, chiefly by having become a supplier of its dairy
and truck garden produce, and by becoming the residential area for
increasing numbers of employees of the Federal governmental
establishment. These elements of the economy of Northern Virginia
offered more resistance to the depression of the 1890's than was
possible in the areas of south and central Virginia which depended on
cotton and tobacco.

In turn, it was the development of rapid