A Texas/Arizona Road Trip - 10.1 - Cook County Courthouse (Texas No. 80)

The tenth and last day of this road trip took me through Gainesville, county seat of Cooke County, a city of 16,000 70 miles north of Dallas and only 10 miles south of the Oklahoma border.  Gainesville has an historic town square with many buildings from the 1800s and beautiful red brick streets.

The big courthouse was built in 1910 of brick and limestone in the Beaux Arts style popular in that time period.  It has an octagonal rotunda topped by a stunning stained glass window under the copper-clad dome of the tower.  Unfortunately, it was Saturday and the courthouse was closed so I did not see it.  The interior is designed in black and white marble.

Detail of the clock tower

This unique building on one of the corners of the courthouse square was particularly intriguing.

Perhaps this building reflects Gainesville's motto, "The Star of North Texas."  The upper floor appears to be boarded up and vacant, although there is retail activity on the ground level.

A Texas/Arizona Road Trip 9.2 - Anson - Jones County Courthouse (Texas No. 79)

From the first moment I saw a photograph of this Post Office mural I fell in love with it and declared it my favorite.  However, I am somewhat fickle and I actually have several favorites but this one is definitely in the running.  "Cowboy Dance" by Jenne Magafan depicts a once-a-year activity which has occurred in Anson since 1885, an annual  Christmas Cowboy Ball where townsfolk dress like cowboys from yesteryear, much like their ancestors did in those early days of the town.

But even this lovely mural provided a certain amount of controversy.  The artist placed a brown jug, the traditional container of moonshine whiskey,  in the lower right-hand corner of the mural and many citizens took great offense because Anson traditionally had been a dry county (to this day Texas still has county option on whether or not alcohol may be legally sold) and even back in its frontier days had never had an open saloon.  Some felt that this oversight signified a careless disregard for the community and was an insult to its upright, moral character.  Others, however, felt the mural was delightful, as do I!

(Reprinted from the Internet)

And now I've uncovered a bit of a mystery.  While looking up the artist Jenne Magafan on the Internet I find this painting from the Smithsonian Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery website which is stated to be the Anson Post Office Mural.  That website indicates it was a transfer from the Internal Revenue Service through the General Services Administration.  All the particulars are the same, the name, the year painted (1941), the artist, although it does not have the cut-out for the postmaster's door and, while although similar, there are significant changes in the details.  First of all, there is no jug and the guitar player is wearing a hat.  The woman in the green dress has a partner who looks nothing like the partner in the mural I photographed.  The blond woman on the left has her back to the audience and her partner has a full head of hair.  The woman spectator on the left is far thinner than in the mural on display.  A side note on the Smithsonian site states that the mural is currently not on view!  My speculation (and it's total speculation, with no credibility whatsoever) is that the painting that the Smithsonian has was a preliminary painting drawn by the artist.  Every single image, other than this one, that I find on the web matches exactly to the mural that was at the Anson Post Office when I visited there on November 6.

One block from the post office is the Jones County Courthouse.  My perfect town:  a Post Office Mural and an historic courthouse!

Constructed:  1910
Architectural Style:  Beaux Arts
Materials:  Brick and Pecos red sandstone

Jones County and its county seat, Anson, is named for one Anson Jones.  That makes it simple!  Anson Jones, a physician, was born in Massachusetts, practiced medicine in New York, came to Texas prior to the battle for independence from Mexico, settled and practiced medicine in the town of Brazoria south of Houston where he was one of the founders of the first Masonic Lodge in Texas, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, served as Texas' Ambassador to the United States and as the last president of the Republic of Texas.  Ironically enough, there is no record that he ever traveled anywhere near the city and county which bear his name!  I do love the patina on this statue.

A Texas Arizona Road Trip 7.1 Off to Flagstaff

Day 6 of my road trip was spent unpacking and unloading the household goods I brought into my storage unit in Phoenix.  Naturally I had to rearrange the whole space to make everything fit and it was backbreaking, grueling work and day 7 was spent recovering from that.  On the morning of day 8 I headed north to Flagstaff to spend the day and evening with my longest and dearest friend.  We met in Texas in 1968.  In 1971 I moved to Flagstaff and she came in 1972.  As the years passed we were both in Phoenix at the same time and she eventually went to Boston for graduate studies but landed back in Flagstaff where she still is to this day, still working as a professor at Northern Arizona University.  The weather forecast the previous evening warned of an early snowstorm for Flagstaff but the temperatures weren't supposed to drop too much so I felt safe in continuing north the next morning.

After reaching nearly 7,000 feet elevation a few miles from Flagstaff this is the scene that greeted me. Flagstaff is located at the base of Mt. Humphreys in the middle of the largest stand of Ponderosa pines in the world and a quick snowfall turns the landscape into a winter wonderland.

She was in between meetings at lunchtime so we agreed to meet at a restaurant in downtown right on old Route 66.  Flagstaff has grown tremendously in the past half century but yet downtown hasn't gotten any larger and I had to park almost five blocks away across the street from the historic 1893 Coconino County Courthouse.  I actually worked in this building for a little over a year in 1972/73.  I loved how this shot turned out as it suddenly appeared that the snow might be clearing.  Boy, was I wrong.  One of the interesting things about this early snow was that the deciduous trees were still showing fall color but yet had snow in their branches.

By midafternoon the snow had accumulated to about three inches and the branches of this almost perfectly shaped blue spruce were weighted down with the snow after a couple hours.

The snow caught everyone off guard and few had time to bring in the summertime deck furniture. The snow continued through the afternoon and we decided it best to stay home for the evening rather than going out to dinner.

A Texas Road Trip 4.1 - Henderson County Courthouse (Texas No. 78)

This was the last day of the road trip and the plan originally was to travel to Fort Worth and then to Dallas to see two of the most beautiful courthouses in the state.  However, this sunburn situation was becoming critical and soon after awakening I was unable to even apply sunscreen or anything to my face.  Even water burned it to the point where I wanted to cry.  I decided it was time to cancel the remainder of this trip and get home.  Even though my sun exposure had been minimal during the past three days, just the mere act of having the sun shine through the windshield was extremely painful, so I skipped the two most important reasons for this trip.  I had found a map of available public parking around the courthouse in Fort Worth but it was still going to require a long walk after parking, even though I had planned for this trip to conclude on a Saturday when the buildings would be closed.  I had no idea what I would find in Dallas but I didn't figure it would be good because the old courthouse, which is known as Big Red, is in the same area as the Kennedy Memorial with the Eternal Flame, and Dallas did not have the friendly parking web page that Fort Worth did.

So instead of going north 26 miles to Fort Worth, I headed east, homebound.  As soon as I felt sure I could find a pharmacist, I stopped and spoke to one about what he would recommend to put on my face.  He suggested something with aloe vera, which I indeed found somewhat cooling and I could actually tolerate applying it.

I did make one stop in the East Texas town of Athens where I had attempted to photograph the Henderson County Courthouse on another occasion but it was unsuccessful.  One of the problems I have encountered here in Texas is that so many of our courthouses have pecan trees on the grounds and in the spring and summer they frequently hide the architectural elements of the building, and in the winter, the barren trees do not make for a very pretty picture.

Constructed:  1913
Architectural style:  Classical Revival
Materials:  Brick and stone

Henderson County was formed in 1846.  The present courthouse is the fourth such structure for the county.  It has, I'm told, marble staircases.

This photograph is actually the back side of the building, although all four sides are relatively identical.  The front entrance on this day was super exposed with sunlight due to the time of my arrival.

County Seat:  Athens, population 12,700.
Location:  72 southeast of Dallas, 200 miles north of Houston, 800 miles west of Athens, Georgia, its namesake.

Interesting facts:  The hamburger was "invented" in Athens, making its debut in the 1880s.  It was introduced to the world in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair.

Athens received over twenty inches of rain this past weekend in the aftermath of Hurricane Patricia, while my hometown of Garrison, 90 miles southeast, received only four!

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This concludes the September road trip.  The four days, with the fourth day having only one stop, generated 22 posts!  Thanks for coming along with me.

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Update on the sunburn situation:  The following Monday I called my doctor's office and they got me in the same day.  The doctor was out but I saw her nurse practitioner.  After doing a small amount of research, he said, "We need to get you off this medicine right now."  I'm now five weeks out and I'm doing well.  I'm adjusting to the change in medication, my lab values haven't been skewed, and I'm looking forward to my next road - this one without a sunburn!  

A Texas Road Trip 3.7 - Somervell County Courthouse (Texas No. 77)

Constructed:  1893
Architectural Style:  Romanesque Revival
Materials:  Native limestone from a nearby quarry
County Seat:  Glen Rose

Charles and Juana Barnard settled this area, arriving in 1849 and building a trading post near Comanche Peak.  A gristmill was eventually constructed and the little town which grew up around the mill became known as Barnard's Mill.  In 1871 the mill was purchased by T.C. Jordan of Dallas for $65,000 and it was decided to change the name of the town to Rose Glen because his wife, a native of Scotland, said the area reminded her of her homeland.  The citizens then voted to change the name of the town to Glen Rose and the first post office was established in 1874.  Glen Rose, a small, quiet city of  2,500 people, is 55 miles south of Fort Worth.

And look who greeted me on the steps of the courthouse door.

This third day ended with me feeling less than par with this intense sunburn I have been suffering.  This particular day I didn't even take off my hat while in the car.  I was glad that after my stop in Glen Rose I only had another 40 miles to drive before my day came to an end.  But when I returned to my car, it was totally dead!  And my cell phone was in desperate need of a charge.  I had planned to plug it in as soon as I got back in the car.  Not even enough juice in the battery to do that!  I figured someone in the courthouse could tell me how to get some mechanical help in an unfamiliar town, but to my dismay the courthouse was actually locked up.  It seemed that Friday afternoons are slow in Glen Rose and everyone had just gone home early!

I noticed two men, who later told me they were both in their 80s, sitting in rocking chairs talking with a younger woman on the sidewalk in front of an antique store across the street.  I walked over and discussed my situation with them.  No known tow facilities in town, no mechanic's garage, no auto dealership, but they were convinced they could fix my car!  Thank goodness they couldn't find a wrench or else I might have still been in Glen Rose standing by my a car with nothing under the hood!

I finally called an emergency number I had located on the back of my driver's license, which rang at the state highway patrol headquarters, who then patched me in to the Somervell County Sheriff's Office and a few minutes later a policeman arrived, followed shortly by a sheriff's deputy.  The policeman's jumper cables didn't seem to be heavy-duty enough to start my car but the sheriff's officer had a stronger set of cables so we were finally successful.  The woman with the two men had called someone named Spike about looking at my car and he said he would remain wherever he was until 5:30, and by this time 5:30 was fast approaching, although my lower legs, since I was wearing Bermuda shorts, were beginning to burn and the slightest bit of sun exposure was becoming more and more painful.

I was still a bit skeptical of someone named Spike working on my car so I asked one of the officers if they knew this person.  Oh, yes, he owns an auto parts store!   I followed the woman to Spike's place and he was waiting and had a battery that would fit my car and the day ended with me waving goodbye  to my new friends in Glen Rose as I traveled the last 40 miles of my day.

A Texas Road Trip 3.6 - Hamilton County Courthouse (Texas No. 76) and a Post Office Mural

The next stop on this third day of a tour through south central and central Texas found me in the small town of Hamilton to see its 1886 county courthouse in the city of Hamilton.  This courthouse had not even been on my list of historic courthouses to photograph until just a few weeks before this trip because the photos I had seen of it online previously showed no interest to me, just a dirty, boxy building.  Little did I know that the Hamilton courthouse was in the process of undergoing a restoration which restored its original clock tower which had been removed in a remodel in 1931. This Second Empire style building is constructed of limestone, a very popular material for this area of the state during the late 19th Century.

Hamilton is one of the few cities in Texas which is home to not only a beautiful courthouse but a Post Office mural, another love of mine.  "Texas Rangers in Camp" is the title of this 1942 fresco secco (tempera on plaster) painted by Ward Lockwood for the Hamilton Post Office.  A group of Texas Rangers is portrayed relaxing around a campfire. One plays a fiddle, one a guitar, another sings and the fourth simply enjoys the music as he cleans his rifle.

I had a rather lengthy conversation with the current postmaster and a clerk about the mural and both were very knowledgeable about  its origin and its artist.  The postmaster has a file with original correspondence between the postmaster of the early 1940s and the artist concerning the painting of the artwork.  Lockwood was one of the founding members of the Taos Art Colony and established the art department at the University of Texas in Austin.

Across the street from the post office was this beautiful Victorian home which called to my camera.  I noticed a Texas state historical marker near the door but I have been unable to find any information online about this lovely home.  You may notice that the ceiling of the porch overhang is painted a sky blue color.  It is believed that this deters dirt daubers, a small wasp which is common in Texas, from building their nests.

Hamilton is a city of 3,100 about 120 miles southwest of Dallas/Fort Worth, 240 miles northwest of Houston, and 165 miles west of my home in Garrison.

A Texas Road Trip 3. 5 - Blanco County Courthouse, Old and New (Texas No. 75)

Day three of my road trip next took me through Blanco County where I found two historic courthouses.  The first was in the city of Blanco, population 1,900 50 miles north of San Antonio and approximately the same distance west of Austin.  Built in 1885, it only served as the Blanco County Courthouse for five years until 1890 when the county seat was moved to Johnson City 14 miles north. Citizens in this part of the state seemed to have problems agreeing in the 19th century where their courthouse should be located.

Since the moving of the county seat, the Second Empire limestone building has served as a hospital, a school, and even a barbecue restaurant.  It eventually was boarded up and was in disrepair until the mid-1990s when preservation-minded locals stepped in and saved the courthouse from being disassembled and moved. For an account of all that went into that effort, including a well-known celebrity who stepped in to lend a hand, you can see an account of how a young woman became known as the savior of the old Blanco courthouse at this link.

Even though the county seat moved in Johnson City in 1890, I find no information on a facility which housed the county government until this structure was built in 1916.  The Classical Revival limestone structure fatures Doric columns and a domed cupola.

Johnson City, population 1,600, is the geographical center of the Texas Hill Country.  Its most famous native son was President Lyndon Baines Johnson, born here in 1908 and buried just a stone's throw from his place of birth in the Johnson Family Cemetery.  His uncle, James Polk Johnson, was the city's founder.

A Texas Road Trip 3.2 - Bandera County Courthouse (Texas No. 74)

Constructed:  1890
Style:  Spanish Renaissance Revival
Material:  Native Limestone

This is the first and only courthouse Bandera County has ever had, a rarity in Texas.  Makeshift quarters were used from the county's founding in 1856 until this courthouse was constructed 34 years later.  The architect drew the plans for $5 and the limestone came from a local quarry.  The tower houses a clock face but not a real clock.  The time is actually painted on.  When first constructed the time read 7:45 but for the past many years it has read 10:10.  No one seems to know the significance of either time.

The county seat, Bandera, is considered the Cowboy Capital of the World and that idea is perpetuated throughout the city.  This idea probably started as early as the 1920s when several dude ranches were formed, many of which still exist today.

Cowboy paraphernalia is everywhere!  Although Bandera only has an estimated population of 857, it appears to be a much larger town.  It's a gathering place for bikers, tourists, and rock star followers, and its many saloons, general stores, and barbecue joints keep the tourists coming.  Bandera's first settlers were Polish and today its sister city is Strzelce Opolskie, Poland.

In the few minutes I spent taking some photos of the courthouse, dozens of bikers passed in front of me, an amazing variety of bikes and bike riders.

I love the sound of the name "Bandera."  It seems so exotic, romantic, exuding a notion of the Old West that is somewhat still alive today.

For many years when I was a child, my dad and several of his cronies had a deer lease between Hondo and Bandera.  They went there every November on their vacation.  Now that I've been to Bandera, I'm sure a lot of their time was filled with hanging out in some of those saloons, although Dad usually always came home with venison.  That was in the days when white tail deer were practically unknown here in East Texas and were most prevalent down in the hill country around Hondo/Bandera.  Today Dad would have had to make up some excuses to travel to the hill country for a deer hunt!

NOTE:  Today's post is dedicatted to our beloved Birdman whom I believe would have been right at home in the quirkiness of Bandera had he ever had the chance to visit here.  Rest in peace, you gentle man.

A Texas Road Trip 3.2 -Medina County Courthouse (Texas No. 73)

Constructed:  1892
Materials:  Limestone
County seat:  Hondo.  Current population, 8,800

When built, the courthouse had a clock tower but it was removed in a 1941 remodeling, which also included the addition of indoor plumbing.

This area was explored by the Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca in the early 1530s.    Like neighboring Castroville, settlers were from Alsace-Lorraine, Germany, Belgium, and Mexico.  Many family-owned businesses, farms, and ranches are owned by the descendants of those early settlers.

If you were a kid growing up in the '50s and loving Western movies, you may remember the movie "Hondo" starring John Wayne, Geraldine Page, and Ward Bond.    Hondo today still looks like a town of the old West.

A Texas Road Trip 3.1

Day 3 of the road trip found me leaving found me leaving San Antonio before the city traffic became congested with my first stop in Castroville, 30 miles west, in search of the old Medina County Courthouse.  I also found St. Louis Cathedral, a quaint little church built of native limestone between 1868 and 1870.

Outside the front of the church is a strike statue of St. Louis, the warrior king of France who participated in the Crusades and who ruled the French kingdom from 1226 from the time he was 12 years old until the year 1270.

You may be thinking, like I was, why is a church in a town with the very Latino name of Castroville named for a French saint.  The city was settled by Henri Castro, a Jewish banker from France who became one of the most important empresarios in Texas.  An empresario is defined as a person who is given a right to settle upon land in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for new settlers. Castro began recruiting in Paris and eventually was responsible for the settlement of people from Alsace, Baden, and Switzerland.  Other settlers eventually arrived who were German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.  Texas became a true melting pot, and land was plentiful and cheap.  After all this history, isn't it amazing that Texans are among the most irritable when it comes to questions of immigration!  (Sorry for the political comment.  I try my darnedess not to do that but it's almost laughable!)

The church in Castroville has celebrated St. Louis Day in August of every year in celebration of the Feast of St. Louis since 1847 when the first St. Louis parish church was established in this little town.

While I was taking photos of the church and the statue of St. Louis, a gentleman who had been sitting outside the church and had moved thinking he was in the way of my photos approached me and we struck up a conversation.  He kept inviting me to come see the interior of the church but I declined, not wanting to get a late start on my day's journey as I had the day before by going on a historic house tour.  He told me there were workers inside the church who had been repainting and giving the sanctuary a thorough cleaning.  I finally agreed to take a look-see and I was definitely glad I did.  It was absolutely beautiful and gleaming.  He said it was the first fresh coat of paint in 20 years.  The tile floor were sparkling with wax and there was not a speck of dust to be found.  I loved the curved wooden beams in the ceiling, and although the pews were stacked on top of each other it looked almost perfect.  I could understand his feelings of affection when he told me that the next day was the 45th anniversary of his wedding in this church and how much St. Louis meant to him and the entire community.

The Castroville City Hall was originally the Medina County Courthouse.  This building was constructed in 1854 and is one of the oldest original courthouses still standing and still in use, although not as a courthouse.  A special election in 1892 changed to county seat from Castroville to Hondo.

I just happened upon this very interesting door during my drive up and down some of the streets of Castroville.

Population:  2,700
Location:  300 miles south of Dallas, 220 miles west of Houston, 1,680 miles southeast of Castroville, California, and 350 miles southwest of my home in Garrison, Tx.

A Texas Road Trip 2.9 - Bexar County Courthouse - Revisited (Texas No. 42)

The second day of the trip concluded in San Antonio.  My daughter and I spent last Christmas there and we had very gray, washed-out days.  I vowed to return to get a better shot of one of the largest and most beautiful courthouses in Texas, the Bexar (pronounced "bear") County Courthouse.  I made a reservation at a downtown hotel and I was afraid of the traffic conditions coming in at 5:30 in the afternoon, but downtown was quiet and peaceful, nothing like what we experienced the week of Christmas.  I checked in, headed back out, found a free parking place a short two blocks away and walked over for a second chance at this beauty.

Constructed:  1892-1896
Architectural style:  Romanesque with Spanish influences
Materials:  Pecos red sandstone and Burnet pink granite with red and green tiles
Architect:  James Riely Gordon, Texas's master courthouse architect
Original construction cost:  $621,000

The original post can be found HERE.

Another repeat of the December trip was a meal at Mi Tierra Cafe Y Panaderia, the oldest restaurant in San Antonio located in Market Square.  My hotel was directly across the street and I wanted another opportunity to see the ever evolving mural of folks associated with San Antonio.  Here are two panels from the huge mural which wraps around two walls of the inner portion of the restaurant, which opened in 1941 and has the capability of seating 500 guests.  It never closes and it celebrates Christmas every day with decorations of Christmas trees, lights, and tinsel all over the place.

This was a long, hard day.  And I have failed to tell you of all my troubles on this trip.  The first day I experienced GPS problems  Someone (no doubt me!) put in an erroneous setting when I updated the maps before I left and every time I went through a town it had me going to the strangest places.  I experienced delays of a couple of hours wandering around country roads until I finally discovered the problem and reprogrammed the device.

On this second day at lunchtime I noticed when I visited the ladies room that my face appeared to be sunburned.  I've lived in Texas and Arizona my entire life and I've never experienced a sunburn to this degree.  I actually purchased sun screen and a big floppy hat but by the end of the day my face was red enough that people were staring.  And although I made ten stops during the day, my usual exposure was no more than about five minutes with the exception of my second stop of the day when I was probably in the sun about 10 minutes before noon.  That evening I checked to see if perhaps any of my medications might be to blame, although none were particularly new.  That's when I discovered that there was a recent warning that, although rare, photosensitivity issues with one medication could be severe.  I would have to see what the next day would bring.

A Texas Road Trip 2.8 - Atascosa County Courthouse (Texas No. 72)

The next stop was in Jourdanton, county seat of Atascosa County.  I cannot give you a pronunciation because I've never heard the county name spoken.  I should have stopped and asked someone but I didn't think of it at the time, as it had been a long day.  I did not traverse long miles but up to this point I had made ten stops along the way.

Constructed:  1912
Architectural Style:  Mission Revival
Materials:  Brick and stone

Some people say Jourdanton "stole" the county seat from Pleasanton but history says there was a special election in 1910 in which the outcome was a vote to move to courthouse from one town to another.  I don't know why an election was held but it caused many hard feelings between the two towns, some of which still exist today.

Jourdanton has very slowly grown over the past censuses and now has a population nearing 4,000.  It is located 130 miles from Laredo on the Mexican border, 400 miles to the Oklahoma border, and 115 miles from Corpus Christi on the Gulf of Mexico.

This is the home courthouse of Paula, blogger friend from Pauline's Country Tales.  I hope the photo is to your liking, Paula.  I had nothing to do with that dramatic sky but I'm so happy it made an appearance!

A Texas Road Trip 2.7 - Live Oak County Courthouse (Texas No. 71)

The next stop on day two of this Texas Road Trip had me finding the Live Oak County Courthouse in George West, Texas.

Constructed:  1919
Architectural Style:  Texas Renaissance
Materials:  Brick and Concrete

George West was named after its founder, George Washington West, a wealthy rancher and land developer who donated some of his ranchland and $100,000 for a railroad right-of-way in 1912 for a townsite.  He then added $75,000 to the pot for the construction of a courthouse, a school, highways, and public utilities in exchange for the county seat being moved from Oakville to his town.  $175,000 went a long way in the early 1900s!

Today George West is still a small town of 2,500 people.  It is located 350 miles south of Dallas, 210 miles southwest of Houston and 370 miles southwest of my home in Garrison.

Texas has a number of two-name towns, and some of my favorites, in addition to George West, are Ben Wheeler, Robert Lee, Ben Arnold, Ben Ficklin, Bud Matthews, Glen Rose, Joe Lee, Rich Coffey, and Lily White.

A Texas Road Trip 2.6 - Bee County Courthouse (Texas No. 70)

I have to issue a heartfelt apology to the Bee County Courthouse.  This is probably the absolute worst photo I've ever taken.  And this was the best of the worst!  The light was horrible.  There was construction in front of the courthouse and wires all over the place.  Crisscrossed wires no less.  And then the detail coming out of the camera was extremely poor.  After spending two hours trying to revive a photograph that was just not meant to be revived - in other words, it was dead and past resuscitation - I happened upon the above effect which gave it somewhat of an architectural interpretation and it's just the best I can offer.  It doesn't even show the front of the building but maybe you'll get the message.  It is a classic courthouse, a dome, a clock, a goddess on top and stately Corinthian columns.  You'll have to fill in the rest of the blanks!

At least one of the dome shots is halfway decent and shows some color!

Bee County Courthouse
Constructed:  1910
Architectural style:  Beaux Arts\
Materials:  Bricks
Namesake:  Col. Barnard Bee, a Republic of Texas statesman
County Seat:  Beeville, population 13,250, 90 miles south of San Antonio , 185 miles southeast of Houston, and 345 miles south-southeast of Garrison, Tx (too far to return for a retake)

A Texas Road Trip 2.5 - Karnes City (Karnes County Courthouse - Texas No. 69) and Kenedy

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.

A Texas Road Trip 2.2 - Wilson County Courthouse (Texas No. 68)

After spending much longer than I had planned in Seguin, I proceeded to Floresville, a small town of 6,000 35 miles to the south, to see the Wilson County Courthouse.  It was the most exciting visit of the entire trip because I fully expected the 1884 Italianate structure to either be gone or surrounded by a chain-link fence.  In October of 2011 the building was abruptly evacuated when engineers discovered major structural problems.  Employees had reported the upper floor seemed to be sinking with debris falling to the lower floor.  The walls were discovered to have cracks all the way to the foundation and one wall was bowing outward.  It was later reported that repairs could cost as much as $10 million and the county was considering whether or not the building should be abandoned.  At some point later I saw a YouTube video depicting scaffolding practically holding up the building and the further announcement that it was unknown what would be the ultimate outcome.  I had little hope of finding a beautiful building worthy of adding to my historic courthouse collection.  The news reports had stopped and no further information was forthcoming.

Imagine my surprise upon arrival on the courthouse square to see a fully intact structure, although gutted, and workers busy doing their trade.

Even Lady Justice seemed to be fresh, although she had a bird sitting on her head who stayed there the entire 10 minutes that I walked back and forth surveying what was happening.

All offices previously maintained in the building had been moved to various places around the small town but I noticed that the County Clerk's Office was housed in an annex attached to the building at the rear.  A very nice young clerk advised that evidently the problem had not been quite as severe as originally anticipated and that repairs were ongoing.  She suggested I simply walk to the front door, stick my head in for a quick peek, and no one would be worried or upset.  So I did just that.

I actually found painters who were working to complete the renovated staircase.  A friendly group, two of them came to the front door to speak to me and we had a nice conversation.  I couldn't help but ask when the renovation would be completed.  The fellow in the above photo said, "Well, they really want it done by the Peanut Festival," which has been an annual tradition in Floresville since 1938. He later told me the festival takes place the second week in October (which happens to be now, although my visit was in late September), so I really don't think it's totally done by this date.  But amazing strides have been made and I am thrilled that the people of Floresville have not lost their historic courthouse and have a beautifully renovated building which should last them at least another 131 years!

Of special interest:  When I told the painter about the bird sitting on Lady Justice's head he remarked that his friends, who had just given her a fresh coat of paint that morning, would not be happy to know about that.

The courthouse was originally red brick but in the 1930s the brick was covered with stucco.

Floresville is 290 miles south of Dallas and 320 miles southwest from my home in Garrison, Texas. Its most notable citizen is John Connally, governor of Texas who was a passenger in the car with President Kennedy at the time of his assassination in Dallas in 1963 and who was also wounded in that attack.

A Texas Road Trip 1.4 - Coryell County Courthouse (Texas No. 7) Revisited

Stop four on my road trip took me from Waco  40 miles west to Gatesville so I could take another look at the Coryell County Courthouse.  Like Waco I had been through here in the past but was not all that pleased with my photo of this beautiful courthouse (see original photo).  As I stopped on the north side of Main Street it looked the same as it had four years previously: pecan trees hiding the details, a washed-out sky, that bright while sunlight that caused overexposure problems and turned the white statuary into ghosts.  I kept looking for a better angle so I got back in the car and decided to check out another view.  As I drove past the south entrance the scene was completely different.  It was more open and visible, clouds suddenly appeared above to give some definition, and at this point I decided that the entrance on Leon Street had to be the main entrance and the north side was actually the back of the courthouse.  I wondered why the official address on Main is not the front of the building.  A short while later I found the answer.  Keep reading.

Constructed: 1897
Architectural style:  Beaux Arts
Materials:  limestone and red sandstone

Since my last trip I had discovered the many Post Office murals in Texas and I had learned that Gatesville had one, so the next stop was to see Joe DeYong's "Off to Northern Markets" painted in 1939.  In the foreground the cook drives his chuck wagon along the trail while the cowboys are driving a herd of horses and a much larger herd of cattle.  De Yong was a real life cowboy and western artist, a protege Charles Russell at his Montana studio, and also worked on a technical advisor in the movie industry.  At the time he produced the mural he was also working with Cecil B. De Mille on the set of Union Pacific.

As I was taking my photograph, a gentleman stopped and asked if there was anything about this big painting (10 feet long, 5 feet high) that bothered me.   I told him I loved everything about it but for some reason the mules pulling the cook's wagon seemed a little off.  He explained that the mules are depicted as pacing where both legs on the same side of the animal move forward together, rather than a trot where two legs diagonally from each other move forward together.  He said only horses pace, not mules.  I thought the mule bodies looked a little more like horses than mules but otherwise I had no complaints.  We discovered he had grown up in Nacogdoches near where I live and I explained why I was driving through town and mentioned my dilemma about the address of the post office seeming to be on the back side of the building.  That's when I learned that what is now Leon Street was once Main Street but many years back when a major U.S. highway came through the town the town fathers felt that the main road should be called Main Street so they reversed the names of the streets but the courthouse kept the same address so today the back side of the courthouse is believed by many to be the main entrance when in reality it is not.  Strange!

As I headed out of Gatesville to my final destination much further south I crossed the Leon River.  Texas has some beautiful very wide rivers and they are very difficult to photograph from the roadway.  As I drove off the bridge I noticed a paved road to the right which led to a small parklike area with a boat ramp so I stopped for a few snaps and spotted a white egret.  He waited very patiently while I took several photos, seemed to be oblivious to my presence, and we both eventually went on about our day.

I hope you're all having a pleasant weekend now that autumn is official here.

A Texas Road Trip 1.3 - McLennan County Courthouse (Texas No. 6) Revisited

Stop 3 on my September road trip included a must see in Waco, county seat of McLennan County.  Yesterday's post featured a mural concerning the McLennan family's settlement of this area of the state.  I visited Waco on my first Texas courthouse road trip back in the summer of 2011 but the photo I took did not include the building's dome, which happened to be under renovation at the time.  It was well worth the revisit!  You can see that first photo HERE.

Constructed:  1901
Architect:  J. Reily Gordon, the master courthouse architect (and my favorite!)
Materials:  limestone, concrete and marble with a Texas red granite base
Architectural Style:  Beaux Arts
Inspiration:  St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome

The dome was completely restored but today it appears that the left arm of Themis, the Greek goddess of divine law and justice, seems to have been damaged and the scales of justice have disappeared.  During the renovation the statute was restored, replacing the blade of the sword which had blown off in a previous storm.  Wind storms in this area are known to cause many problems for the intricate details of these historical buildings.  But I think you will agree with me that this is one of Texas' finest!