is town hall
style became a popular prototype for buildings erected in several
counties during the first three decades of the nineteenth century.
After being introduced in Fairfax County in 1800, this style appears
in the Nelson County Courthouse built in 1807, the Caroline County
Courthouse built in 1808, the Sussex County Courthouse built 1825-28,
and the Madison County Courthouse built 1829-30. Variations in the
layout of the interior appeared in the use of the space over the
arcade; sometimes it was used for the jury room, and at other times it
was used to accommodate a balcony for spectators.[151] After 1824,
however, a new style of courthouse building may be seen in the public
buildings of Virginia counties. Based on the neo-classical lines of
the State Capitol, designed by Thomas Jefferson, there came into being
a series of courthouses which were suggestive, if not actual,
representations of the seat of state government.[152]

_The Courthouse._ In its exterior appearance the Fairfax County
Courthouse underwent little change during the first century of its
service. Indeed, looking at the courthouse square in 1900, it might
have seemed that the courthouse was the only building that had not
been rebuilt, relocated or significantly expanded. The effects of
passing time were more evident in the evolution of the layout and
furnishings of the court.

Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century the interior of
the courthouse probably remained similar to the layout described in
colonial times. Generally the focal point of the court chamber was a
long table at which the County Court was seated, flanked by smaller
tables where the court's clerks did their work. Customarily, also, a
railing across the room separated this space from visitors whose
business or curiosity led them to crowd in upon the court and its
staff. As long as the gentlemen justices of the court were in reality,
as well as name, the governing authority of the County, this
arrangement of the courthouse chamber was the most sensible that could
be suggested.

As the purely judicial duties were isolated and assigned to the
professional judges of the District Court it became customary to
renovate the court rooms to install the features which have become
associated with litigation--the raised bench of the judge, the jury
box, the witness stand, and counsels' tables.

These changing ideas of what a court chamber should look like became
established d