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Location of seat: Warrenton
County Established: 1759
Present Courthouse Built: 1890 |
Francis Fauquier was a lieutenant governor of the Virginia Colony, who served as acting governor, from 1758 until his death in 1768. Prince William County was divided into smaller, more bite-sized counties in 1731, and Fauquier got a county named after him. While loyal to the crown of England and one who brooked no nonsense, he was sympathetic of the needs and desires of the locals, and was remembered fondly enough that Fauquier County retained his name after independence...but then if you look at many of Virginia's county names, King this and Queen that and Prince the other thing, it sure seems like all of the British colony county names stuck around after independence!
The courthouse that stands today in Warrenton, Fauquier County's seat, is the fifth to have graced that spot: The original was built in 1790, but was torn down in 1819 to make room for an improved courthouse. That courthouse burned down in 1853, and its replacement burned in 1889. Today's courthouse is almost identical to the one that burned in 1889.
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Fauquier County's Old Jail sits conveniently next to the courthouse, was built circa 1808, and is delightfully sinister in appearance. It is today's home of the Fauquier County Historical Society, and the county's museum.
Arrayed before the jail are a series of monuments and markers, including Lafayette's Stepping stone, upon which the Marquis de Lafayette is said to have stood in 1825; a World War Two memorial plaque on a fetching stone; a small bronze sculpture honoring the US troops of the 1991 War in the Persian Gulf; and in place of the standard Confederate Monument found at most of Virginia's county seats, a lovely obelisk honoring local boy John Singleton Mosby, a Confederate cavalry officer whose exploits gained him the nickname of "The Gray Ghost of the Confederacy."
No colonial-era county seat would be complete without a tavern at which folks coming to do business at the courthouse could spend the night, and Fauquier County is one of few Virginia counties whose original tavern still stands: The Warren Green, originally known as the Norris Tavern, still operates on the block behind the courthouse.
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Warrenton's Main Street, at least in the courthouse area, is quite lovely. Several of the buildings fronting the street are built to match the courthouse's aesthetic: The John Martin Payne Building, which houses a public library, is particularly beautiful...I briefly thought that it might be the courthouse!
Right next to the courthouse is the pleasing building you see to the right, with a statue of John Marshall (fourth Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, who was born in, you guessed it, Fauquier County) sitting afront. This building presently houses the county's Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court, and it sure looks as though it's an historical building of some description, but despite all of the helpful signing that's planted on its front lawn, I couldn't find any information about the place that John Marshall is guarding. Hopefully the Fauquier County Historical Society will answer my email soon and fill in that blank for us! |
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