Historic Preservation

Welcome to Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre. We appreciate you coming to visit us today! A few notes as your tour begins: There is no food or drink, except water, inside the buildings. Please feel free to interact with the spaces and take pictures. If you have any questions or would like any additional information, please let a guide know. Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre has over 200 years of history that can be explored in the 28-acre park on the grounds and in five historic buildings: 1822 courthouse, 1822 jail, 1874 church, 1850s farmhouse, and a 1928 one-room schoolhouse.  Restrooms and the Museum Store are located inside the Brentsville Schoolhouse. 

STOP 1: AT THE FLAGPOLE - THE TOWN OF BRENTSVILLE

Established on 50 acres in 1820, the Town of Brentsville became the fourth county seat of Prince William County.  The county seat can be compared to the capital of a city: all the important business occurred here, civil to criminal, mundane to extraordinary. As the county seat, residents were attracted to the town centrally located along the Valley Road (Bristow Road) to build new homes and businesses. Seventy plots were laid out in a grid with the three acres set aside for the public lot and three acres for taverns. Throughout the town of Brentsville, several homes and businesses were built as well as a school, church, three taverns and three cemeteries.

The public lot consisted of the Courthouse, Jail, Clerk’s Office, and public green. The Public Lot was the center of any county seat. The Public Lot was the town’s recreational, social, economic, political, and social center. The atmosphere was festive, and the town taverns did a great amount of business on Court Days. During Court Days, citizens converged on the Public Lot to sell their wares, visit, and listen to court cases. Special events were held on the green including picnics, festivals, tournaments and even a circus came to town. In front of the courthouse, property and estate auctions occurred, some of which included enslaved people. The Public Lot was a lively place when Court was in session. 

STOP 2: AT THE FLAGPOLE – THE CLERKS OFFICE 

At the current location of the Brentsville Schoolhouse (Stop 9) once stood the County Clerk’s Office. Built by 1822, with the Courthouse and Jail, the Clerk’s Office was where all of the County’s legal documents were stored and managed by the County Clerk. It was the Clerk’s job to record all of the proceedings that took place in the Courthouse and to work alongside the magistrates providing them with advice on applicable laws and procedures. 

The Civil War brough destruction to Brentsville and this building. Unlike other Clerks of the Court in Northern Virginia, when the Confederates left Prince William County in 1862, the county records were not evacuated, but instead remained here while the Clerk fled. Over the course of the war, passing soldiers routinely entered the building taking paperwork for stationary or just destroying county records. Sixteen deed books and five will books were either looted or destroyed over the war. By 1863, soldiers encamped at Bristoe Station demolished the vacant clerk’s office and used the bricks and stones for their winter hunts. After the war, local houses served as the clerk’s office until the Clerk moved into the courthouse. The Brentsville Schoolhouse was built over part of the foundation in 1928. 

STOP 3: PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY COURTHOUSE
 
This building was built in 1822 as the County’s fourth courthouse. The County seat was moved to Brentsville from Dumfries to centralize its location within the County. When the County seat was first moved to Brentsville, two courts met here: County Court and Circuit Court. Meeting once a month on average was the County court, presided over by local magistrates who were prominent members of the community selected by the Governor. They oversaw civil and criminal cases, levied taxes, and oversaw all county government functions. The end of the Civil War brought a new state constitution, and with it modern courts. Local political authority was transferred from the magistrates to elected officials forming the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in 1870.
 
The building’s layout is typical of courthouses across Virginia through the nineteenth century. The Chief Magistrate and nine other magistrates sat on the highest benches against the back of the building. If required, a jury was assembled and sat on the benches below. The County Clerk, who recorded the proceedings, sat at the center table. Lawyers having business with the court took their seats on the elevated benches facing the magistrates, clerk, and jury to wait for their cases. The County Sheriff and Deputy Sheriff took their positions in the elevated boxes on each side of the courtroom to maintain order in the court. The plaintiffs, defendants, and those who represented them, pleaded their case on any remaining space near the Clerk’s desk. Those waiting to be called forward as witnesses or interested spectators could stand an observe the case from the stone gallery near the front of the courthouse. 

After hearing the arguments in a case, the magistrates in County Court cases, or the jury in Circuit Court cases, would head upstairs to the deliberation room to decide the ruling of the case.  The room was not meant to be used for long and so it was simply furnished with a table and chairs. Once a verdict was decided, the group would come downstairs and the Head Magistrate or Lead Juror would announce the court’s decision to the courtroom. 

The office upstairs was the smallest room in the courthouse and was used for two purposes during the nineteenth century. Originally, it was an office for the Chief Magistrate, the head judge and executive of the county who was appointed by the governor. When the Civil War came to Brentsville between 1861 and 1863, the County Clerk’s office next to the courthouse was dismantled by soldiers for building materials. After the war, when civil government returned to Prince William County, the County Clerk used this room as the Clerk’s office for a brief time. 

When the County Seat moved to Manassas in 1893, the Courthouse remained in constant use until it was preserved as a historic site in 2006.  Shortly after the move, the courthouse was converted into the Prince William Academy, a private teacher’s academy. In 1910, the Courthouse became a public school until 1929 when students moved to the one-room schoolhouse that stands next door. Throughout the remainder of the 20th century, the building served as community center hosting dances, film screenings, and other town events before eventually becoming offices for the Prince William County Park Authority until its restoration in 2006.

STOP 4: BRENTSVILLE JAIL 

Built in 1822 with the Courthouse and Clerk’s Office, the Prince William County Jail was one of the strongest buildings in the new community of Brentsville. Those accused of a crime awaited trial here in the timber-lined cells. Convicted criminals who were sentenced for a short jail term, served it here in the local jail. Those sentenced to serve longer terms were transported to the state penitentiary in Richmond. 

The Jailor supplied and maintained the jail using local tax monies and fees that prisoners paid for their “dieting”, the food and clothing they were provided. County record books list several orders for items such as jail locks, buckets, blankets, beds, and stoves. The Civil War left the jail in bad repair and the County borrowed money from citizens to repair it. Records of numerous escapes are evidence that the building was never really secure. 
In 1893, after the County seat moved to Manassas, the Jail was converted into a dormitory for the Prince William Academy located in the Courthouse. It was later used as a private residence and office space before returning it to its 1820s appearance and opening as a museum. 

STOP 5: GALLOWS 

You are standing in the approximate location of the gallows at Brentsville. A serious sentence for a crime was capital punishment, or the death penalty. A prisoner being sentenced to be hanged on the gallows was a rare occurrence in 19th century Virginia. More common sentences were fines, labor sentences, lashing, or interment in the state penitentiary. An additional punishment, particularly for African Americans, was being sold out of the state into slavery. Instead of having permanent gallows for hanging, temporary scaffolding was constructed in the northwest corner of the Public Lot for use and then immediately dismantled. 

The exact number of executions that took place here are unknown, but the first execution took place in 1823 and the last execution in Prince William County took place here in 1875. 

STOP 6: THE HAISLIP-HALL HOUSE
 
Samuel Haislip built this home for his wife and their seven children around 1850. The original structure included two bedrooms and was built from logs and cedar siding. The home was later owned by John William Hall, the husband of Haislip’s youngest daughter, Sophia. While still owned by Hall, the house was rented to different families over the years until it became vacant. The house accommodated numerous people, including the enslaved. When the house was building, the Haislips owned two enslaved persons. By 1860, the enslaved population had expanded to 11 individuals. There is no documentation on where the enslaved lived on the farm. Most likely some lived in the house and some in agricultural buildings. 

The main room was the center of activity for the Haislip and Hall families. It was the only room with a fireplace, so this is where all the cooking and eating took place. The fire also provided additional heat and light for socializing or evening activities, such as sewing or reading. By 1860, a few of the enslaved who worked at the Haislip farm likely worked in this space. 

The upstairs loft was divided into two rooms: a bed chamber and a small garret, or loft. Upstairs was a personal space where only members of the family would go. There were three beds upstairs that the family shared, and extra bed ticks were pulled out for the children to sleep on. On exceptionally cold nights, the family would have slept downstairs in the main room to make use of the fireplace. In addition to beds, chests full of clothing, blankets, and quilts were placed upstairs for storage. A washbasin, chamber pot, and shelves full of toiletries and medicines allowed for basic hygiene inside the home. 

The house was originally located off Linton Hall Road and was moved to the site in 2000. The restoration of the house was completed between 2007 and 2008. The addition of the house and its farm-like surroundings give visitors the opportunity to see what it was like to live on a nearby 500-acre farm in 1850s Virginia. 

STOP 7: THE BRENTSVILLE TAVERN

Between 1822 and about 1910, a large structure bustling with activity stood near here. One of the first buildings constructed in town, the Brentsville Tavern became part of the community’s social center. Although first known as the Brentsville Tavern, on November 28, 1828, it was advertised as “The Brentsville Hotel” in the Virginia Gazette. The Tavern was aligned with the town’s main road, so it served as a convenient resting place. It also catered to residents and people traveling to Brentsville for court business where they med, lodged, stabled their animals, ate, and were entertained. 

In 2004, archaeologists from Mary Washington’s Center for Historic Preservation excavated portions of the tavern site. They identified portions of the main buildings as well as numerous outbuilding sites and features. Some of these are still visible and the outline of the tavern can be seen to your left. 

STOP 8: BRENTSVILLE UNION CHURCH
 
For nearly 50 years, the town of Brentsville had only one church, although traveling ministers of different denominations sometimes held services in town. In 1871, the owner of the Brentsville Tavern donated land for the construction of a new church “free to all denominations of Christians”. After construction finished around 1880 only one congregation used the building despite the earlier claim. First a Baptist congregation used the building until 1897 when they moved to the old St. James Church building across the street. 

By 1915 Presbyterians used the building until 1950 when they outgrew the space and moved into the church currently located bordering the historic sites. Later various civic and religious groups used the building including an arts group and a Pentecostal congregation. In 1997, Prince William County purchased the building and restored it in 2005. The building is currently used as an interpretive and rental space for special events. 

STOP 9: BRENTSVILLE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 

Although private schools existed in town, not until 1869 were free public schools established throughout Virginia. Multiple buildings in Brentsville served as public schools, including the old courthouse. The Brentsville School was built in 1928 over the original location of the County Clerk’s office as a modern replacement for the school in the courthouse. The one-room schoolhouse served white children grades one through five, where children learned subjects that ranged from arithmetic, grammar, and history to industrial arts and hygiene. The first teacher was Lucy Mae Motley, who like her successors, oversaw the lessons for all grades. Most students walked to the school from within three miles, by 1934, thirty-nine children were enrolled, and the average daily attendance was twenty-nine. The Brentsville School was in operation from 1929-1944, when the school was closed, and students bussed to nearby Nokesville. Once closed, the building served a variety of uses from a community and recreation center, private residence, arcade, office, and finally museum. Restored in October 2012, the building has returned to its 1930s appearance.

Translations have been provided by Google Translate. Please excuse any grammatical errors.