MLK, at least Hidalgo has a heavily defended courthouse now.

Evidently some of you have not been scarred enough in life to appreciate what "Ugly" really is. A sober contemplation of the Smith County Courthouse will supply this deficiency.

Tom Green County's Courthouse has become uglier in recent weeks. I spent last week in San Angelo, working at the County Jail. The Courthouse now has police tape all around it, bright orange cones, and tons of signs prohibiting the use of cameras, not to mention all of the satellite trucks in the street.

Honestly, the ugliest courthouses I've seen are Jackson County, Aransas County and Ector County. Brazos County Courthouse (which I visited today) is definitely up there.

[This message has been edited by CDub06 (edited 6/1/2008 12:04a).]

I think Titus County wins.

By the way, Collin County's District Courts left the big brown box and moved into a new courthouse on the north side of McKinney last year. Here's a picture:



The County Courts at-Law continue to sit in a renovated hospital:



[This message has been edited by H6RBW (edited 6/1/2008 12:34a).]

VIctoria county had a great courthouse. I wonder if it's still there.

The story goes that same man built most of the old courthouses all across the state. Anyone know anything about this?

You're probably thinking of J. Riely Gordon, but here is a list:

http://www.texasescapes.com/Texas_architecture/TexasCourthousesByArchitects.htm

From SWCBonfire's list, quite a few architects built multiple courthouses. Gordon built the Gonzales County courthouse which isn't too shabby.


The Gonzales Courthouse faces the old county jail; from which the clock on the courthouse tower is visible. In the 1920's a man who was "wrongly" imprisoned sat in his cell waiting to be hanged. He allegedly put a curse on the clock tower & said it would never work again. He hung & sure enough the clock went kaput until the 90's when a wealthy local rancher had it completely re-worked.

[This message has been edited by Apache (edited 6/4/2008 5:05p).]

Apache, I think they spent almost $4 mil on the recent renovation including the clock. Evidently they didn't do much for the jury room.

FYI, there are air conditioned bathrooms, cooled water fountains and a vending machine in the basement of the courthouse if you are at Come & Take It and your wife/SO doesn't want to pee in a trailer.

[This message has been edited by SWCBonfire (edited 6/4/2008 8:58p).]

Have to say, Harrison County's is not exactly a work of art. Another instance where the nice, old courthouse still stands but is retired, replaced by something that is not nearly as nice.



Old courthouse:

quote:

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your wife/SO doesn't want to pee in a trailer.

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The giant urinal trailer is all part of that authentic Come & Take It experience. I'll tell the Wife about it on Day 2.

Having been born and raised in Bellville, I knew the Austin County courthouse would be on this thread.

But in our defense, this beautiful one burned to the ground in 1960. I sure wish they had rebuilt it, but in 1960, everyone wanted "modern".

Don't have a picture of it, but the Presidio County Courthouse in Marfa is beautiful.

Rockwall county courthouse is butt ugly.

I agree that those old time Courthouses were picturesque and that County Commissioners who approved the demolition of many of the structures in recent years were wrongheaded to put it mildly. In almost all cases the courthouse erected in the county seat was the first building of significance constructed in a newly organized county ... and that old building symbolized the pride and confidence of the early settlers in the land they had chosen to build their homesteads and communities.

The Fisher County Courthouse buildt in 1910 was such a structure.



Saturdays in my growing up days were spent climbing around on that old courthouse and playing a variety of rough and tumble games on the grounds of the courthouse square. The rite of passage for a Roby kid at about 8 or 9 years old was to walk around a ledge that was 8 inches wide with a 6 foot drop to the ground that was just below the first floor windows. You did not walk, but with back against the brick you scooted your feet sideways and hoped for the best. I knew that old place inside and out.

Although I mourn that it was destroyed along with its history, instead of being modernized, I can understand why county leaders were reluctant to commit to the effort and expense of trying to save the relic.

The old courthouse which was typical for the time had two complete floors plus a half basement. The layout of the building was such that all offices were very small and cramped by even standards of the mid-1950s with the tax and clerk's offices hit hardest. Files, records and ledgers were scattered and stacked everywhere which is understandable with the county growth ... but correctable with maybe adding an administrative annex ... but the old building would have been impossible to bring up to date.

Ceilings were about 9 or 10 feet high and it had large and abundant windows to make it usable in pre-airconditioning days. For comfort in the early days windows were usually left wide open despite West Texas wind and sand and occasional rain. And the layout was such that central airconditioning was out of the question. The alternative was a bunch of window units ... and in the early days those units were not overly efficient. Renovation was virtually impractical.

But I recall fondly walking the floors of that old courthouse which probably was not unlike most other Texas courthouses. Hardwood floors in offices and the courtroom that were swept daily with something like oil-soaked sawdust. Marble or granite floors in hallways with a 4-foot wainscot that were mopped daily with a disinfectant that smelled like horse linamint. And nasty spittoons in the hallways and even the courtroom. (Between 1910 and 1950, tobacco consumption of choice was snuff and not cigars or cigarettes ... and farmers never perfected their aim when they spit.)

The district courtroom was a dismal and scary place for a kid to peek inside when court was not in session. The mixture of the dank smell of that closed room along with the other smells coming from musty records, oiled floors and disinfected halls convinced me that a courtroom was no place to be, regardless of which side of the law one was on.

The old clock tower could be seen from about five miles away when nearing Roby ... and I cannot help by look for it today when I cross the Clear Fork coming from the east or north. I feel sorrow when I think about the generations of kids in Fisher County who have not and will never again experience a wide-eyed walk through that old building ... and feel a bit of pride in the monument their great grandfathers were so proud of.

Fossil, wish I could have seen the old Fisher County Courthouse. I am the District Attorney for Fisher, Mitchell and Nolan Counties. The new Fisher County Courthouse is interesting. Have never seen one like it before. I love the old courthouses around the state.

SW AG80 .... The old Nolan County courthouse had a feature not discussed in earlier posts but I suspect was common in all of the earlier courthouses about the state.



Under the front steps and in the half basement was to me IIRC an extravagant public restroom that was open to the public on Saturdays. Seventy years ago that restroom was a necessity and an attraction for the rural families making the weekly run to Sweetwater to sell cream at the Vandevorts creamery and buy groceries for the coming week at Piggly Wiggly (and Dad to have a beer at the L&L Cafe while Mom escorted the four brothers to Tom's Ice Cream Parlor.)

But the grandest attraction of all to those old time courthouses was in the evening of Election Day. A big tote board was erected on a platform on the courthouse square and half the county would turn out to watch the returns being posted in chalk as the ballot boxes from outlying communities were opened and the votes counted. Those were glorious events.

My Mother is now 96 and her short term memory is almost gone, but she takes great pleasure even today recalling those early times and simple pleasures in Haskell, Nolan and Fisher Counties. Her memories are a treasure for the community and must be protected.



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/10/2008 2:05p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/10/2008 2:17p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/10/2008 2:27p).]

Fossil, I grew up in Reagan County and I remember going up to the courthouse on election night and looking at the tote boards. Seems like life was much more simple and much more pleasurable back then. Where do you live now?

One mile from the A&M campus for the past 32 years.

But you have never forgotten where you are from, have you!

Ours isn't really ugly in Sutton County

Just really grinds my gears that there's one just like it in Concho County

My personal favorite is Tarrant County though

Not a chance. Fact is I spent this past weekend at Roby enjoying the West Texas wind and replenishing the sand in my craw ... and putting the finishing touches to a vexing family business matter. The first two objectives were simple enough but I think outside help may be needed for a speedy solution to the third reason for the trip.

This talk about old time courthouses brings back memories of old time sheriffs that ran counties for 20-25 year terms, the speed and finality of district court judgements, and that old van driven by "Uncle Bud" who made regular stops at county jails to load up passengers bound for the state penitentiary. Those old courthouses turned out swift and sure justice and the bad boys knew it. Recidivism was a rare topic of conversation in rural counties in the older days.

I haven't heard the threat "Uncle Bud is gonna get you" in 50 years or so. Has anyone else ever heard it?

http://texashideout.tripod.com/russell.html

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/10/2008 7:36p).]

Since the courthouse in Bellville got slammed (rightfully so), I thought I would post one of the buildings that we still have with us, the old Austin County Jail, which is now a museum.

I took this picture on Saturday morning, while in town to visit my dad for Father's Day.





[This message has been edited by Rex Racer (edited 6/15/2008 10:50p).]

Anyone have a picture of the recent Nueces County courthouse? It's pretty bad too.

I agree with aalan, Austin Couunty sucks big time.

most of y'all will be bemoaning the loss of these current/replacement/rebuilt/additional courthouses in 20-30 years.

You'll look back wistfully on the "modern" architecture of the 50-70s and wish we'd spend money to keep them going.

For instance in Dallas, people are clamoring to save the old Hilton/Statler hotel downtown, eventhough it would fall into the category most of these "ugly" courthouses do. That 70s style is really making inroads in the "endangered buildings" lists.

fossil_ag
Did you ever know Mr. "H" Govan in Rotan? He was the athletic trainer for the Rotan Yellowhammers for over 60 years.

southcsag --- I knew Mr. H from hanging out in Rotan in the late 1940s and early 1950s with high school kids from there ... at Ragsdale Drug Store, Lance Theater and Judy Cliff's Drive-In and, of course, at football games.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/29/2008 3:04p).]

quote:

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Brazos county, for sure. But hey, B/CS is the mecca of white trash, one learns to expect such stercus.

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huh?

Kiros Kid -- loved the C&C reference!

Is it true that there was one particular architect that went around Texas building courthouses? Especially those that have the look of an old gothic structure or a swemi-medieval castle.

I think I heard that in Victoria. I hope they saved the one in Victoria County. It was one of this man's.

Galveston county went from this:



to this:



to finally this:




The new one is an improvement over the last one, but even the original isn't that impresive.

Personally, I like the origianal Galveston city hall:

Someone wanted a pic of the new Nueces County courthouse:



The 1914 Courthouse has been vacant for 30 years and looks to be in terrible condition (but at lease it is still standing):



I've taken photos of about 150 of the state's courthouses. I think the only state that has as much pride in their old courthouses as Texas does is Indiana.

Zapata County actually replaced an ugly building with a new building that looks like a courthouse should look.

Old:


New (circa 2005):