In 1871, an extensive fire had just swept through the old Market House and City Hall you now see rebuilt by architect Adolph Cluss. This is a place shaped by layers: the site began as a market established in 1749, and in 1752 lottery proceeds funded the town hall and courthouse that stood here. That courthouse is the one where George Washington served as a justice for a court that served both Alexandria and Fairfax County, to which Alexandria belonged prior to the Revolutionary War.
In 1817 the town replaced the old complex with a new three-story brick building along Royal Street, complete with a clock tower designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe; its tall, steepled tower became a prominent landmark. After an extensive fire in 1871 the structure was rebuilt as a replica of the former building you see today, and in 1984 this building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. For a time the Alexandria-Washington Masonic Lodge had headquarters here, another chapter in its public life.
Picture George Washington once serving as justice on this very spot, long before Latrobe's clock tower and Cluss's rebuilt façade rose above Royal Street.