San Saba County Courthouse
San Saba, Texas
Constructed: 1911
Materials: Brick and sandstone
The old courthouse is still being used today but is considered one of the most endangered buildings in the Texas historic courthouse family. It has received numerous emergency grants in the past decade but is still awaiting complete funding for restoration. In order to receive funds from the State Historical Commission, counties must participate in funding requirements and for a small county like San Saba that can be a most difficult task when millions of dollars are needed. Some of the major issues are water intrusion (there are actually holes in the roof in many areas) and electrical considerations (a breaker must be manually activated to turn the air conditioning on and off in the courtroom and the noise is said to be so loud as to make the conducting of business almost impossible when the air conditioner is running; numerous electrical fires in the building have been caused by faulty wiring).
For this courthouse enthusiast, an actual "high" is experienced when first sighting the courthouse in some of these small Texas towns. I love seeing the perspective created by these architectural giants on the landscape.
San Saba is a small town of approximately 3,000 people located 185 miles southwest of Dallas, 260 miles northwest of Houston, and almost 300 miles west of my home in Nacogdoches County. It is the birthplace of the actor Tommy Lee Jones. Known as the Pecan Capitol of the state, one of the largest pecan orchards has been operated by one family for six generations.
10 comments:
I just got my latest issue of Arizona Highways and they have an article that features the best of all 15 Arizona counties. They mention in the article that if they were Texas Highways, they couldn't do an article like that because Texas has 254 counties. The article would be too big for a magazine. I had no idea Texas had so many counties. That's a lot of courthouses for you to visit.
I love Tommy and I love pecans and i love old buildings, a good place to visit. i like the double steps side by side.
An imposing building but not one of the most beautiful than you have featured. I like the picture of the dome as you first saw it, an interesting perspective.
If you ever tire of courthouses, YOU could do some 'ramblin' on one of these islands. There are 365 at low tide. I kid you not. They call them the Calendar Islands. 365 get it? hahahaha
Can you imagine trying to conduct business with that loud A/C and trying to conduct it without the air here in Texas? Scary with all those electrical problems too. Interesting post.
interesting one. i like the dome.
Sounds like a dangerous place to me. I hope they make some needed repairs soon!
Hope that somehow funds can be found to help restore this historic building.
They are all such works of art, too! Love that you are documenting them! And sharing them!
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