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.

[Illustration: 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 space 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 shingles.
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 shell. 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 workmanship 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 dec