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San
Jacinto County Courthouse (SE corner)
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, December 2006 |
SAN JACINTO
COUNTY COURTHOUSES
By Terry
Jeanson
When San Jacinto
County was created in 1870, the county seat of Coldspring
(known earlier as Coonskin and Fireman’s Hill) had already
been around for over twenty years. The Carnes Hotel was used for court
proceedings until a Victorian style two-story wood frame courthouse
was completed in 1871. Builders Thomas and Werner from Fort
Worth were paid $8,000 for its construction. A separate wood frame
grand jury building was later built. In 1887, a brick jail was built
across from the courthouse. The jail was expanded in 1911 and continued
to be used until 1980. In 1895, a one-story brick records vault was
built behind the courthouse, similar in architecture to the 1887
jail. This building stood until it was demolished in 1980, but
the 1887
jail is still standing.
On March 30, 1915, fire destroyed the courthouse and many of the other
surrounding buildings, but the county records were saved in the records
vault. Unhappy with the town site, the people of Coldspring relocated
the town to higher ground, ¼ of a mile southwest of the town’s original
location and planning began for the construction of a new courthouse.
Architects Roy E. Lane of Waco
and Wilkes A. Dowdy of Houston,
who were partners for a brief time, were hired to design the new courthouse.
(Lane was best known for his partnership with Sanguinet and Staats
in the design of Waco’s
ALICO
building, completed in 1911. Dowdy worked for the Houston
office of Sanguinet and Staats and was appointed city architect of
Houston in 1921.) The firm
of Price & Williams was hired as the contractors, but the county would
go through two more contractors before the courthouse was completed.
Designed in the Classical Revival style, the courthouse was built
with locally fired brick. The entrances on each side had large entry
stairs and Corinthian columns topped with corbelled brick capitals
that reached the roof. A small penthouse was built in the center of
the roof (a dome or clock tower was not within the budget) with a
glass skylight below it over an interior central rotunda with concentric
staircases. The courthouse originally had a jail in the basement with
a winding staircase that led to the original location of the witness
stand and judge’s bench in the second floor district courtroom. When
the courthouse was completed in 1917, the post office relocated there
and remained in the courthouse for ten years. By the time the courthouse
was finished, most businesses and residences had relocated to the
new town site which served to boost the development of the town.
In 1937, a WPA improvement plan led to changes in the courthouse’s
original exterior architecture. The deteriorating Corinthian columns
and corbelled brick capitals were removed and replaced with white
Doric columns and pediments. Later renovations in the 1950s and in
1975-76 altered the interior, including the addition of tile floors
and wainscoting, the lowering of the interior ceilings to install
central heat and air conditioning and new lights and the partitioning
of existing offices to create more office space. The original stained
glass light in the rotunda was removed in 1990.
Despite the modifications over the years, the 1917 San Jacinto County
courthouse still dominates the town of Coldspring
and continues its role as the seat of county government.
- Terry
Jeanson, August 2011 February
Source: The Texas Historical Commission County Atlas at http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/shell-county.htm,
National Register of Historic Places - San Jacinto County Courthouse
and the San Jacinto County Jail & Old Records Vault Building |
 |
San
Jacinto County Courthouse (SW corner) today
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, December 2006 |
San
Jacinto County Courthouse as it appeared in 1939
Photo courtesy TxDoT |
San
Jacinto County Courthouse at a later date
Photo circa 1945 courtesy THC |
San Jacinto County
Courthouse
Photo courtesy Melodee Arrendell, 2007 |
Photographer's
Note:
Subject: San Jacinto County Courthouse
We have a large annual Christmas celebration the second Saturday of
December with a lighted parade, free entertainment all day with bands,
dancers, singers, crafts, shopping, and food. This picture is the
courthouse decorated for Christmas. - Melodee Arrendell, November
17, 2007 |
The
historical marker incorrectly lists architect "Dowdy" as "Dabney."
- Terry
Jeanson Photo |
Historical marker
SAN JACINTO
COUNTY COURTHOUSE
A fire in 1915
destroyed the San Jacinto County courthouse. Landowners donated land
at this site and relocated the center of county government to "new
town" Coldspring. The county hired
builders Price and Williamson to construct the new courthouse based
on plans by the Houston firm of Lane and Dabney.* It was constructed
in 1916-17 of brick fired locally from local clay. Merchants and citizens
followed the courthouse to the new location, and by 1925, "old town"
Coldspring was deserted. Repairs
in 1936 modified its appearance somewhat, but the courthouse retains
elements of its original Italian Renaissance design in its arched
doors and windows on the east and west elevations.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2000
*should read Dowdy |
"West
side entrance. The Doric columns and pediment replaced the original
Corinthian columns and corbelled brick capitals."
- Terry
Jeanson |
| "The
rotunda inside the courthouse. A map of Texas is displayed in green
tile in the center of the rotunda with San Jacinto County outlined
in red tile." - Terry
Jeanson |
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