v. 12 (1949-50), 4; v. 18
(1950-51), 497; v. 20 (1953), 519.

[121] Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Minute Book, v. 30 (1960),
pp. 418-23.

[122] Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Minute Book, v. 32, 264-65
notes that Reston offered 50 acres for the use of the courthouse, and
Tyson's Corner and the intersection of Routes 495 and 50 also were
considered. See also, _Ibid._, v. 39 (1964), 117.

[123] Fairfax County Deed Book, B-2, pp. 373-376; 503-504. The
courthouse commissioners were Charles Little, David Stuart, William
Payne, James Wren, and George Minor.

[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 immed