Reordering the Court

Historical Renovation Restores a Central Texas Treasure

by Rob Patterson

Browning's Construction's $9 million restoration of the Williamson County Courthouse in Georgetown will renew the luster and historical character of the gemstone in the city's vintage town square.

Originally opened in 1912, the building requires care and craft to return it to its original state while meeting modern needs and requirements.

San Antonio-based Browning Construction Co. started the work in December. The reopening is planed for April 2007, which puts the project with some extensive old-school construction needs on a fast-track schedule under a GMP contract with the county.

The restoration process began in 1999 when Georgetown-based 1113 Architects solicited the county to develop a master plan for renewing the historical character of the 36,000-sq.-ft. masonry-frame building.

The Williamson County Courthouse, nesteled in a Central Texas town square, is on a fast-track renovation with a reopening planned for mid-2007. (Photo by Lucas Adams.) BELOW. A black-and-white photo of the courthouse, which was built in 1911. (Image courtesy Williamson County Historical Museum.)

"We surveyed it to see just how much of it is still original materials and what had been changed, altered or added or deleted," said Karalei Nunn, project architect for 1113. "A lot of our research was forensic: trying to figure out why things happened the way they happened, such as why the terrazzo floors are severely cracked. We found that they were set improperly."

Sharon Fleming, associate director of the Texas Historical Commission's Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program, called the building high quality, especially in its finishes and features. "We're attempting to bring those back and deal with code compliance and modern needs," she added.

THC contributed $4 million to the project cost. As staff architect overseeing the project for THC, Fleming is a resource as well as an additional quality-control factor on the team. Broaddus & Associates of Austin will act as the owner's representative.

The restoration of the exterior roofline is the most significant aspect of the project. "We're going to recreate the original terra-cotta pediments and balustrades that go around the top," said Tom McDaniel, the Williamson County commissioner shepherding the project. "I call it the 'little stone fence.'"

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Removing the brick wall that's now there and recreating the "little stone fence" and carved caps above all four entrances will cost $1.5 million, in part as a result of a miscalculation made in the 1960s when pieces of the roofline fell off the courthouse "and the country decided it was unsafe," McDaniel said.

"The county got a bid of $100,000 to take the terra cotta down and replace it with brick and another bid of $130,000 to repair the terra cotta," he added. Workers ended up taking down the terra cotta and putting the brick up, McDaniel said.

"And now we're redoing the terra cotta, making that one of the worst decisions ever made by the county court here, that's for sure."

Fleming said that, at the time, "the removal was controversial. We have letters written at the time to the governor's office attempting to stop it from happening. "So what we're attempting to do now is recreate it to match its original appearance, and it's a rather large, complicated and expensive task. It will make a dramatic improvement in how people perceive the building."

Greek columns with carved capitals grace the four entrances. BOTTOM: Work on the dome includes a new copper skin, restoring the clocks and cleaning Lady Justice. (Photos by Lucas Adams.)

McDaniel said the construction team had to do a mock-up for the THC to examine before it could go forward. "That mock-up takes three months, and once it's accepted, it takes another nine months to create the rest of the terra cotta to put on the top," he said.

Nunn added: "They are going to have to reconstruct these pediments and the carvings from old photographs that are being blown up and are grainy because the original drawings did not include those designs." Only two companies in the U.S. do that type of work."

It is an example of the many tasks that require special skills less common today than when the courthouse was build nearly 100 years ago.

"Craftsmanship was different than it is in today's society," said Harley Blackburn, senior project manager for Browning Construction. "Not everybody can do it. We're looking for people who may not have the lowest numbers but can do the work and have this kind of experience in restoration. We've had to find several subcontractors who are not based in Texas because of the technical nature of the work."

Another major component will be restoring the state district courtroom on the second floor where, in a famed 1923 case, future Gov. Dan Moody prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan. The two-story courtroom was later divided to install offices on the upper level.

The floor will be removed and a wood balcony will be recreated to return the courtroom to its original state.

That requires the repairing, stripping and refinishing of the room's wooden benches and trim along with the rest of the building's extensive woodwork. "Over the years, different stains and finishes and sealants on top of the wood made the colors dissimilar," Blackburn said. "We will return it all to the original finish."

The copper cladding on the courthouse dome will be replaced. New mechanisms will be added to the four clocks on the dome and a modern single-ply roof will be installed.

Inside, a curved three-story stairway will be recreated in a well that was used for an elevator. Browning is seeking a subcontractor that can recreate the decorative ironwork on the stairway. To meet modern access standards, a new elevator will be installed in a section where it is less intrusive on the historical character of the building.

Upgrading the courthouse's modern amenities requires working around the restoration requirements. "Some of the MEP work is going to be a challenge because of the oldness of the building," Blackburn said. "And we're not going to damage any walls to get it in place."

For the lighting, historic renditions of the original fixtures must be made.

In some cases historical accuracy requires less than desirable finishes, as with the inside plaster walls and ceilings. "It's not a beautiful plaster," Nunn said. "It's a sandy and gritty plaster. The temptation is to put in a nice plaster job. But we want the sandy plaster they used in 1912."