In Clarksville I found the Red River County Courthouse, which recently underwent a renovation which included the rebuilding of the courthouse clock, nicknamed Old Red.
Built in 1885, the courthouse boasts turrets and buttresses of yellow stone cut from a nearby quarry. Because its architecture is part Victorian, part Gothic, and part Italian Renaissance, someone once described it as Late 19th Century Debatable. The courthouse clock ticked from 2:30 p.m. on May 27, 1885, until it developed troubles and was electrified in 1961. This saved the janitor 30 minutes of hard winding once a week, but four months later, at 4:35 a.m. on a June morning, Old Red started striking and struck her bells 120 times before someone pulled the plug. Someone described it as “the night that got later than it ever has been."
The Cass County Courthouse in Linden is the oldest continually operating courthouse in Texas. Construction began in 1859 and it opened in 1861, but it wasn’t actually completed until 1865 because of the disruption of the Civil War. It was a two-story, Italianate style building made of locally fired brick with a hipped roof and a central, square drum with a small cupola on top. It retained this appearance until 1900 when an addition was built onto the building’s east side. The front and rear entrances received two-story, pedimented porticoes with gabled roofs and two pairs of Doric columns sometime afterwards. In 1908, a tornado destroyed the building’s cupola. The courthouse was repaired and the cupola restored the following year and other repairs were eventually completed by 1918.
In 1933, a fire damaged the upper floors and the courtroom in the center of the building. Repairs were completed the next year, but the cupola was not restored and a third story was added. The building’s brick was later covered with stucco and painted white with tan trim.
In January of 2008, Cass County was awarded a grant from the Texas Historical Commission for $4.4 million towards the restoration of the historic courthouse. Along with the addition of updated electrical and plumbing systems, the interior and exterior will be returned to their 1934 appearance, restoring the original colors, ceiling molding, cornices and other architectural details and removing the dropped ceilings. Structural changes to the building since its construction make it impossible to return the building to its 1860s appearance.
Linden is not too far from where I live so maybe in a few months I'll return for a picture of the new and improved Cass County Courthouse.
The last stop on my return home was in the historic town of Jefferson. Even though under 3,000 population it is a tourist mecca, filled with historic homes turned into bread and breakfast establishments, antique shops, artsy boutiques, and plenty of things to see, including its fair share of biker visitors.
Brickart in Jefferson
Thanks for coming along with me on my road trip to Arizona and back. It was a great one and I hope you've enjoyed the pictures I've shared. I went through such famous places that you've all heard of (but maybe never realized they were in Texas) such as Concord, Palestine, Beverly Hills, Memphis, Chillicothe, Paris, Reno, Detroit, Clarksville, Malta, New Boston, Boston, Old Boston, and Carthage. And then there were those memorable place names of Reklaw (Walker spelled backwards), Early, Bangs, Goodnight, Oklaunion, Magnolia, Electra, Belcherville, Blossom, and Maud. I photographed ten courthouses and ooh'd and aah'd over each of them, drove 3,131 miles and savored every single one of them. I hope to do it again, maybe to some other state next time, or maybe just back to Arizona. Texas is a big enough state that I could go a different route several times. In the meantime, I'll share with you my day trips as they come up because there's lots of Texas to cover. So wishing you good travels in all your days to come.
