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Current Kendall
County Courthouse
Boerne, Texas
Date - 1998
Architect - Rehler Vaughn & Koone, Inc.
Style - Modern
Material - Limestone, steel & concrete
The 1998 Kendall County courthouse is easy to find. It's right across
the street from the former courthouse.
See Kendall
County Courthouse History
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The 1998 Kendall
County Courthouse
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, April 2007 |
KENDALL COUNTY
COURTHOUSE HISTORY
Originally part
of Bexar County,
the area became part of Kerr
County in 1856 with the town of Comfort
(founded in 1854) selected as the county seat. It served as the county
seat for two years before Kerrville
became the county seat. In 1859, residents in the eastern part of
Kerr County petitioned
for the formation of a new county. In 1862, Kendall
County was cut from Comal,
Kerr and Blanco
counties and officially organized. It was named for journalist George
Wilkins Kendall, who was a member of the Texas Santa
Fe Expedition and a veteran of the Mexican War. His reporting
during the war led him to be hailed as the nation’s first war correspondent
and he was also regarded as the father of the sheep business in Texas.
The community of Tusculum (named for Cicero’s home in ancient Rome)
founded in 1849 by German immigrants was renamed Boerne
in 1852 after German author Ludwig Boerne and Boerne
was chosen as the county seat when Kendall
County was organized.
Construction on Kendall
County’s first courthouse, which served as the county’s only courthouse
for 128 years, didn’t begin until 1869 and it was completed in 1870.
Designed by Philip Zoeller and J. F. Stendebach and built of limestone,
the courthouse
was a one-story building two bays deep and four bays wide. In 1885
(some sources say 1886,) a second story was built based on plans by
Charles Buckel, which included corner quoining, cut stone lintels
and a two-story porch at the front entrance. The building was completed
with a Mansard cupola over the front entrance and cast iron cresting
on the roof.
The courthouse
was altered again in 1909 when a substantial addition was built onto
the front entrance, doubling the size of the building. Designed in
an Italianate style by noted Texas architect Alfred Giles and built
by E. H. Clemens, the addition was built with a combination of smooth
and quarry-faced ashlar limestone, contrasting with the smooth stone
of the original part of the courthouse. The front of the building
is emphasized with a triple arched arcade, a second story porch with
a stone balustrade, semi-circular arches over the second story windows
and wide, smooth stone stringcourses. Octagonal wings with hipped
roofs frame each side of the entrance and the roof is made of standing
seam sheet metal. A parapet on the roof in the center of the 1909
addition bears the date of construction. From its original construction
date of 1870, the Kendall
County courthouse is the second-oldest courthouse in Texas in
continuous use. (The Cass
County courthouse is the oldest.)
Many interior alterations were made over the years to accommodate
the needs of the growing county until a modern courthouse was constructed
in 1998, mimicking many of the architectural features of the older
courthouse. In 2008, Kendall
County was successful in obtaining a $1.285 million grant from
the Texas Historical Commission’s historic courthouse preservation
program which, not only allowed the county to update the electrical,
plumbing and environmental systems and install a new elevator, but
enabled them to restore the interior of the old courthouse to its
1909 condition. The restoration was completed in 2010 and the courthouse
was rededicated on April 10, 2010.
© Terry
Jeanson, January 15, 2015
Sources: County history from The Handbook of Texas Online.
Courthouse history from the Texas Historical Commission at http://www.thc.state.tx.us/,
the Texas Historical Commission’s Texas Historic Sites Atlas at http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/shell-county.htm,
the Texas National Register Program Narrative Kendall County Courthouse
and Jail at http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/shell-desig.htm, and The
Courthouses of Texas by Mavis P.Kelsey Sr. and Donald H. Dyal, 2nd
edition, 2007. |
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The former Kendall
County Courthouse as it appeared in 1939
Photo courtesy TXDoT |
The Former
Kendall County Courthouse
Date - 1870, with
1885 & 1909 additions
Architect - Philip Zoeller and J. F. Stendebach (1870), Charles Buckel
(1885 addition), Alfred Giles (1909 addition)
Style - Italianate
Material - Limestone
The former Kendall County Courthouse is the second oldest in the state.
See History
More
views of the former Kendall County Courthouse:
|
The front of
the old Kendall County courthouse
on the day of its rededication
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, April 2010 |
Front entrance
to
the old Kendall County courthouse
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, April 2010 |
SE corner of
the old Kendall County Courthouse
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, April 2010 |
East side of
the old courthouse showing
the obvious division from the 1909 section (left)
and the original section (right.)
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, April 2010 |
Courtroom before
the restoration.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, January 2008 |
Courtroom after
the restoration
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, April 2010 |
The
restored courtroom bead-board ceiling with finials.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, April 2010 |
A portion of
the original 1909 checkerboard floor
in the courtroom next to the restored section.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, April 2010 |
Stairwell before
the restoration
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, January 2008 |
Stairwell
after the restoration.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, April 2010 |
The former Kendall
County Courthouse
as it appeared in 2003
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, January, 2003 |
Another vintage
photo of the former courthouse
Postcard courtesy rootsweb.com/%7Etxpstcrd/ |
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Photo
courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
George
Kendall
by Clay Coppedge
The man for whom Kendall County is named is credited with being America’s
first war correspondent and the father of the sheep business in Texas.... |
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