The missing pillar was at one end of the front of Old Town Hall. Photo by Bonnie Hobbs.
If a tree falls in the forest and no one sees it happen, it may or may not make a sound. But if a 21-foot column falls off Fairfax City’s Old Town Hall in the middle of the night, it’s captured on a traffic camera.
And that’s how Public Works Director David Summers knows what time a huge pillar crashed to the ground, early Friday morning, Aug. 14, from the historic building at the corner of Main Street and University Drive.
“Traffic cameras caught it falling around 4 a.m.,” he said. “Like a tree, it slowly shifted, tipped over and fell, landing on the sidewalk.” Luckily, though, he added, “These columns are just cosmetic; they don’t support anything. Code Enforcement and Public Works personnel went up into the attic and declared its structural supports are safe. There’s no danger to anyone.”
LIKE THE REST of Fairfax County, the City of Fairfax was deluged by torrential rain last week, and Summers believes that’s what ultimately caused the column’s demise. “We think water got in there during the heavy rains and rotted it at the bottom,” he said. “We think that was the tipping point. And all the damage was on the inside of the column – you couldn’t see anything wrong from the outside.”
Pointing at a couple piles of wet pieces of wood on the ground that broke off from the white-painted pillar, he noted that “These are hollow, wood columns with no structural support, at all. The columns at City Hall have a structural steel beam inside them because they’re load-bearing; these aren’t.”
Then, looking at the inside of the top of the column, also on the ground, Summers said it was obvious, as well, that “Birds got in there from the roof and roosted. And if birds could get inside the column, so could water.”
He planned to have a third-party, structural engineer visit the site this week to evaluate the remaining three columns and the building’s overhang to check its integrity and confirm City staff’s initial evaluation. In addition, a Virginia historical architect will advise the City about the repairs to this 120-year-old building because, explained Summers, “They don’t make columns like this anymore.”
Constructed in a classical revival style, Old Town Hall was built in 1900 by Joseph E. Willard and eventually donated by him to the City. In 1987, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the City of Fairfax Historic District. The two-story building is often used for weddings, parties, meetings, cultural and artistic programs and performances, as well as special events such as the annual Chocolate Lovers Festival and Lunch with Santa.
AS SOON AS CITY STAFF was alerted that the pillar had come down, it closed the right lane of University Drive, plus the sidewalk in front of the building, so personnel could check out the damage and begin a temporary fix. Workmen erected a tall, wooden, ladder-type structure to shore up the overhang near where the column had stood. And Old Town Hall’s front entrance will be closed to the public during the duration of the work.
“We always keep an eye on this building,” said Summers. “And just two months ago, we replaced the roof and made repairs in the attic, so it’s sound.”
He first learned about the fallen pillar when he got a call, last Friday, around 7 a.m., from the City’s Facilities head, Rob Goodman. Someone saw the column on the ground and called the Fire Department – which contacted Goodman, who rushed to the scene to see what had happened. Said Summers: “My first questions to him were, ‘Is the building safe?’ and ‘Do we need to shut the road down?’”
But, he added, “I wasn’t really surprised. I know this is an old, wooden building. And with all the rain, wood rots, so I wasn’t shocked.”