e accomplished by March 1800, so that the _Columbia Mirror and
Alexandria Advertiser_ was able to carry a notice its March 29th
edition that

The County Court of Fairfax is adjourned from the town of
Alexandria to the New Court House, in the Center of the County,
where suitors and others who have business are hereby notified to
attend on the 3d Monday in April next.

Thus, the first recorded meeting of the court in the new courthouse
was on April 21, 1800.[31] Meanwhile, in Alexandria, the Mayor and
Council adopted a resolution giving to Peter Wagener the title to the
bricks of the old courthouse on Alexandria's market square as
indemnity for pulling it down.[32]

_Fairfax Courthouse and the Town of Providence_

The central location of the new courthouse and the improvement of its
accessibility through the construction of several turnpike roads
commencing in the early 1800's, led naturally to the growth of a
community around the courthouse. In the vicinity of the crossroads a
few buildings antedated the courthouse. Earp's store, probably built
in the late 1700's, was one such building, as were dwelling houses
reputedly built by the Moss family and Thomas Love.[33]

Development of more nearby land was not long delayed. In 1805 the
General Assembly authorized establishment of a new town at Earp's
store, to be named Providence.[34] The future growth of the town was
forecast in a plat laying off a rectangular parcel of land adjacent to
the Little River Turnpike into nineteen lots for building.[35]

Settlement during the next few decades was relatively slow. Rizen
Willcoxen built a brick tavern across the turnpike from the
courthouse.[36] A variety of "mechanics" and merchants opened their
workshops and stores to serve the local residents and travellers on
the turnpike, and, on the north side of the turnpike, a store was
established by a man named Gerard Boiling.[37] Also, a school for
girls occupied land across the turnpike from the present Truro
Episcopal Church, and, east of the courthouse crossroads, a Frenchman
named D'Astre built a distillery and winery and developed a
vineyard.[38]

Martin's 1835 _Gazetteer of Virginia and the District of Columbia_
described Fairfax Court House Post Office as follows: "In addition to
the ordinary county buildings, some 50 dwelling houses (for the most
part frame buildings), 3 mercantile stores, 4 taverns, and one
school."[39] The "mechanics" located in the t