n the Council Order was on the New Church
Road (later known variously as the Eastern Ridge Road, the
Alexandria-Leesburg Road, or the Middle Turnpike) running from the
Falls Church to Vestal's Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains, at a point
where this road intersected the Ox Road, running north and west from
the mouth of the Occoquan River. A map of 1748 also shows roads
running from the courthouse west in the direction of Aldie, and
southwest toward Newgate (now called Centreville).[7] The site was
roughly equidistant for persons coming from Alexandria, Newgate, and
the Goose Creek settlements, but somewhat farther for those from
Colchester.

The land on which courthouse was built was conveyed to the County by
deed from William Fairfax, dated September 24, 1745,[8] and described
six acres "where the court house of the said county is to be built and
erected," to be held by the County "during the time the said Court
shall be located there but no longer." According to a survey made in
March 1742, the site was a rectangle, 40 poles long by 24 poles wide,
described in metes and bounds starting from a post on the west side of
"Court House Spring Branch".[9] No other landmarks or monuments
capable of surviving to modern times were mentioned in the deed, and
today the site of the Springfield Courthouse can be determined as
approximately one-quarter mile south and west of Tyson's Corner.

Having in mind the statutory requirements, it is presumed that the
complex of buildings at Springfield consisted of a courthouse, a jail
with related structures, a clerk's office, and one or more "necessary
houses" (outhouses), all conveniently located with respect to each
other and the roads. County records show surveys for two ordinaries
(inns) located on or adjacent to the courthouse tract. One of these,
surveyed in 1746, was a two-acre parcel containing John West's
ordinary and related buildings, and the other, also surveyed in 1746,
was for one acre within the courthouse tract on which John Colvill was
allowed to build an ordinary.

No contemporary descriptions of the courthouse have survived, but it
is likely that the buildings were of log construction, on stone
foundations, with brick chimneys. A 16-foot-square addition to the
courthouse was ordered in 1749, with the specification that it have a
brick chimney.[10] An item from the Court Order Book, dated December
23, 1750, states:

On motion of the clerk of the court that papers ly