With more historic courthouses than any other state, Texas has developed one of the nation's most far-reaching preservation initiatives to protect the structures steeped in history.

Texas courthouses date from the mid-19th century and were among the first permanent buildings in many counties. Today, many of them remain a source of pride and symbol of unity to the communities they serve.

Last year, the 78th Texas Legislature reinforced the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program-which provides partial matching grants to Texas counties for the restoration of their historic county courthouses-with an additional $45 million commitment in bond sales that will keep the program going at least through 2005.

This brings to $142.4 million the amount the state has invested in the program, which is administered by the Texas Historical Commission. An additional $214 million in state funds is currently needed to finance restoration of all the courthouses with approved master plans, according to the THC.

The THC said the program, started in 1999, has also generated more than $53 million in new expenditures by participating counties. In addition, it has created more than 3,500 jobs, nearly $98 million in income and more than $133 million in gross state product.

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The program has been enthusiastically supported by local officials and the building community as an investment with a high rate of return.

"As a sponsor of the state's courthouse preservation initiative, we take great pride in what we do and are dedicated to historical restoration and preservation" said Dale Sellers, president and CEO of Dallas-based Phoenix I Restoration and Construction Ltd, which has been involved in more than 15 Texas courthouse projects. "The program has created more than 200 additional jobs in the state for our company, so we have benefited from it greatly. In addition, each project has generated more than $500,000 in the local communities in terms of employment and business for vendors."

To date, the agency has approved 104 of the 120 master plans it has received. Sixteen of those courthouses have been fully restored and rededicated, while 46 are currently in some form of restoration.

Three of the projects in various stages of completion-Red River (in the northeast town of Clarksville), Lee (in Central Texas the town of Giddings) and Newton (in the small East Texas town of Newton)-illustrate the challenges and goals of the program as well as the uniqueness of individual courthouses.

Newton County Courthouse

Originally built by Martin and Moody Architects in 1903, the Newton County Courthouse suffered a devastating fire in August 2000 that destroyed the majority of the interior.
The cause of the fire, which started in the attic, was determined to be faulty wiring.

"The irony is that about nine months before the fire we had applied for a $300,000 grant from the THC for a new roof and to replace the wiring and were turned down," said Newton County Judge Truman Dougharty. "The master plan had to be perfect. We didn't get it that time, but we were pretty sure we'd get it the second time around, after the fire. And we did.

"So far we've received a $3 million grant. Gov. Rick Perry presented the check to us in person." Post-fire stabilization was completed by Phoenix I at a cost of $465,000.

"It took two months just to get all the burned debris out," said Drew Owens of Phoenix I, who served as the project manager.

"Then we took the top courses of brick all the way around the outside walls, relaid them and put a steel superstructure on top of that. And finally the roof."

Newton's courthouse design is reminiscent of the Second Empire architectural style.
The bell-tower attic featured an uncommon truncated clock tower, a mansard roof and corner quoins. The bricks on the inside walls were made out of mud from nearby Caney Creek and baked on the town square.

Despite the damage from the fire, the outside walls are said to be structurally sound and near their original condition. Don Low, a local resident who does computer networking for the county, said that while he was drilling through an outside wall of the courthouse to run in a cable, he found the walls to be 13.5-in.-thick River Rock concrete.

Now that Newton has its new roof, the county is ready to start the inside work. "I guess you could say we're dried in," Dougharty said.

Wharry Engineering of Dallas is working up new plans, which are expected to go up for bid this spring.

"I was in office when the fire happened, so I hope we can finish while I'm still there," Dougharty added. "I grew up in Newton and rode past the courthouse everyday on my way to school. The building really symbolizes Newton's identity."

Eventually, the temporary shingles on the roof will come off and be replaced with slate like the original, and the clock tower will go back on. Unfortunately, the original bell was exposed to so much heat it is now cracked. It will go on display in front of the courthouse.

Lee County Courthouse

The Lee County Courthouse in La Grange was originally designed by J. Riley Gordon and dedicated in 1899 at a cost of about $32,000. Today, Phoenix I is giving the courthouse a $4.5 million facelift, and construction is scheduled to be completed this month.

The project is particularly meaningful to its architect, Dale Rabe of Austin's Rabe + Partners, whose grandparents lived only a few blocks from the courthouse when he was a child.

Several Texas courthouses were designed by Gordon, a student of Henry Hobson Richardson. The Richardson Romanesque style is recognized by its arches, short columns, big capitals and a lot of exterior details.

Lee County's exterior is simpler than most Richardson-designed courthouses. It's easy to spot the central tower, the four transepts going in a cross-check pattern and the curve of the porches. "You can see more of the massing and the detail of the actual building rather than a lot of ornament," Rabe said. "All the windows in the corners come into the central core, and the stairwell rises all the way up.

"In the days of no air conditioning and no electricity this produced a chimney effect. The skylight opened up and pulled the air from all the rooms on the outside up through the top of the chimney to ventilate the space."

Setting the tower off the center and the courtroom to one side allowed ventilation and light to flow into the center of the courthouse and also made a taller masonry tower possible, Rabe said. "Riley was able to take the tower way up," he added. "And that is part of the community pride."

But the design was not without its problems. The original wood trusses, which spanned the entire length of the courtroom, proved to be insufficient, and two steel columns were added in the courtroom about 1902. The slate roof had to be removed to reduce weight, and plaster ceilings were replaced with metal ceilings.

Because the trusses bowed as the steel rods that hold the walls together pushed out on the upper walls, some steel was added to the inside walls in the '30s. Other than those modifications, and the addition of suspended ceilings in the '80s (which have since been removed), no major renovations were ever done to the courthouse.

"We chose 1919 as the date to restore it primarily because that's when electricity was introduced in the courthouse," said Rabe.

Today, a steel grid holds the trusses and the top of the building together, as well as the weight of the air conditioning. Getting the steel lattice work into the attic required reinforcing the basement, first and second floors. "We set up scaffolding around the steel and hoisted each piece up through the courtroom ceiling," said Drew Owens, project superintendent for Phoenix I.

The courtroom's balcony had been closed for many years due to structural problems.
"But with a little structural engineering, some themes and channels, seating on the balcony will be restored," Rabe added.

A peculiarity of the courtroom is its layout. The witness sits directly in front of the judge's bench and faces the audience. The jurors are then seated in front of the audience along a rail facing the judge and the witness. The architect felt that the jurors should not see the audience's reaction to witness testimony, and so this arrangement will remain when court is back in session.

When the interior is finished, the walls will be colorfully painted in Victorian shades. A pattern across some of the openings dubbed "stars and bars"-like snowflakes and stripes-will be recreated. "We're not sure if it was some kind of hex sign or if it was done for decoration," Rabe said.

Most of the floors will be wood and stained back to match the historic color. This called for removal of two floors that were placed over the original, which included vinyl tile containing asbestos. "The original was impregnated with asphalt containing asbestos and there was no way to get that out of there," Rabe said.

The usable tile, even if it is cracked and damaged, will remain. "We're not trying to make this thing look like new," Rabe added.

A hole approximately 6 in. in diameter in one of the iron stairs that leads up to the attic will also remain intact (actually, the portion of the stairway will be closed off to the public). The damage was caused in 1925 when the clock fell out of the tower and through the stair.

"It's part of the history now," Rabe added.

Red River County Courthouse

Clarksville's Red River County Courthouse was built in 1885 by P.C. Livingston for $75,000. The building is the only remaining structure designed by architect W.H. Wilson.

Now, Harrison, Walker & Harper, the general contractor from Paris, Texas, is nearing completion of an extensive renovation for a total cost of $3.9 million. One of the 10 oldest continuously active courthouses in the state, the structure incorporates Renaissance Revival style features and Italianate influences. The original ochre limestone came from a quarry in nearby Honey Grove. Sandstone to repair the courthouse exterior was obtained from the same quarry, according to Hunter Moore, vice president of preconstruction for Harrison, Walker & Harper. "We used the old stones as patterns for new ones," Moore explained. "They were textured onsite to match the originals."

Other details include the openings and metal work. The doors and first- and second-story windows are spanned with segmental arches, with bull's eye windows on the third floor. An ornate sheet metal cornice caps the wall, and finials project vertically above the columns, creating an irregular silhouette.

Five of eight finials and all the chimneys were replaced using historic photographs to determine what they looked like originally. The centrally positioned tower is clad with metal, a clock with bold faces and a cupola. Inside, the walls are plastered, wooden wainscots are used in the courtroom and hallways, and there are pine floors throughout.

Because the courthouse had a major addition to its west end in 1910 to house the district court clerk's offices, restoration plans could target either that era or the 1880s.
Originally, the 1910 date was chosen because the judge's bench would have remained at its most recent location at the west end of the courtroom.

But during testing to determine the interior walls' original color, which had been repainted so many times that analysts found as many as 14 coats in some places, a discovery was made that changed those plans: The Ninth Commandment, Thou Shall Not Bear False Witness, was found painted on the east wall.

The cupola's wooden framework was rotted, and there was concern about whether it could continue to support its two-ton bell. The decision was made to replace rather than restore it.

"Removing the cupola from its perch was risky," Moore said. "If the fragile cupola crumbled during the move, the bell would likely crash through the courthouse roof.
Constructing a new cupola was easier with an intact original that could be used as a pattern."

Harrison, Walker & Harper wrapped four slings around the cupola to disperse its weight and hold it together during removal. The slings were attached to a spreader bar to prevent the slings from crushing the cupola. Then it was successfully restored by Harrison, Walker & Harper and given as a gift at no cost to the county. The historic structure is now on display on the courthouse lawn.