ten shillings each, the trustees making
themselves responsible for a sum adequate for the purpose. At the
trustees' meeting of April 1767, John Dalton and John Carlyle produced
an account of moving the courthouse amounting to L52 7_s._ 5-1/2_d._;
while William Ramsay presented his account for a "scheme of a lottery to
build a Church and Market house" in the amount of L11 12_s._[39] The new
town house with its clerk's office and assembly room stood on the
northeast corner of the square; nearby on Cameron Street stood the
Fairfax Court House, which town promotion had brought to Alexandria. The
church and market did not materialize so early.

[Illustration: The addition to the town in 1763 and 1767. (Library of
Congress)]

EARLY EDUCATION

Space in the lower floor of the town hall was provided for a grammar
school soon after the completion of this building in 1760. Seven years
later the town fathers found that the schoolhouse was so misused that
repairs were urgent and minutes for the meeting of February 2, 1767,
record how they considered it necessary to put it in better condition,
"also to make some additions in order to make the upper room usefull not
only for meeting of the Trustees but for such other purposes as may be
thought necessary." Apparently a separate entrance for the schoolroom
dates from this time; other improvements included the raising of the
roof for greater utility upstairs. The trustees further resolved: "As it
appears to us that the House has been very much injured by the
negligence of the School Masters it is now determined that each Master
give security to repair any injury that the House may sustain during the
time they have it." Robert Adam and Thomas Fleming were appointed
overseers of the property for a term of twelve months.

[Illustration: Corner mantel at 211-1/2 Prince Street in the house built
about 1786 by William Hickman. The builder was trying to cram into a
given space every motif in the _Builder's Handbook_: Greek entablature
at the top of the pediment, crowded center panel, broken pediment, and
the top of the pediment jammed into the cap fretwork. The whole is very
amusing but interesting and altogether charming.]

A grammar school reputed to have been supported by public funds was in
existence at Belhaven in 1739, just ten years before Alexandria was
founded. Presumably the Alexandria school of 1760 was put into operation
under identical conditions and it may be that special cl