I have a special knack for traveling hundreds of miles to photograph an historic courthouse and arriving at the front door to find it under construction. Such was the case on this trip, although I did manage to find several more courthouses to add to my collection. The Karnes County Courthouse in Karnes City, Texas, was built in 1894 after the county seat was moved from another small town. In the 1920s in a remodeling effort the turrets and clock tower were removed. Today another renovation is underway to restore the look of the 19th century courthouse. I'll probably never see the renovation but if you would like to view an architectural rendering of the proposed changed you may view it here. I think it will be stunning.
I find very little information about the courthouse online. Karnes City is a small town of 3,100 30 mles southeast of San Antonio, 300 miles south of Dallas, and 320 miles southeast of my home near the Texas/Louisiana border. This fifth stop of the day was a mere six miles south of the church in Panna Maria.
The next stop was in Kenedy (one N only), another six miles down the road to see the town's post office mural. Sometimes the local post offices have really thwarted my efforts to photograph the murals, as evidenced by the hanging fluorescent lights which now hang directly in front of and on either side of the mural!
Nonetheless, I think it's a beautiful painting by Charles Campbell in 1939 titled Grist for the Mill. It depicts the early cotton industry in the area. The first gin in Kenedy was built in 1891. And therein lies the error in this work of art. Dictionaries define "grist" as a grain, which is processed in a mill. Cotton is a fiber, which is processed in a gin. Campbell supposedly wanted to use a gunfighter theme for his mural but the local postmaster and other citizens didn't want to highlight the city's nickname of Six-Shooter Junction and encouraged him to focus on a local industry. In any material I read about the mural no one seems to have picked up on the fact that the title pertains to a grist mill while the subject matter deals with the processing of cotton fibers. Campbell also painted a mural for the post office in Angola, Indiana. He was paid $560 for this piece which is 14 feet long by 6 feet high.
6 comments:
Those lights do block the mural. John's son is staying in Kenedy overseeing the plumbing in a new building, I think a hospital.
Well, at least Texans are renovating their courthouses rather than tearing them down and that's a very good sign for future generations. As for post office murals, it is curious that lights were placed inside that make enjoying the artist's work difficult!
Finding that courthouse covered in scaffolding reminded me of when I was in London two years ago. On my list of things to do was to photograph the art deco apartment building that was used to depict where Hercule Poirot lived in that PBS series. You guessed it, I found the apartment building and it was covered in scaffolding.
I am a big fan of the name Six Shooter junction. it is a nice mural and I guess they got to pick what he painted since they paid for it.. i know what grits is, but grist is a new word..
Great to see they are maintaining the current building. Beautiful mural.
It's gotta be disappointing to find scaffolding surrounding a building you want to photograph.
Post a Comment