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Jones
County Courthouse
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, April 2003 |
Anson
downtown in 1940s showing Jones County Courthouse
Click on image to enlarge
Photo courtesy Nancy Bailey |
Historical Marker:
Jones County
Courthouse
The Seventh
Texas Legislature created Jones
County in 1858 and named it for Anson
Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas. The Civil
War, Reconstruction, and the area's untamed wilderness combined
to postpone the county's formal organization until 1881. Voters
selected Jones City, later renamed Anson,
as permanent county seat.
The first permanent courthouse was a small frame building, which
served until the county purchased a hotel in 1884 for use as a courthouse.
An 1886 brick courthouse served the county for the next 24 years.
In late 1909, the Jones
County commissioners court, led by County Judge J. R. Stinson,
determined that the growth of the county called for a larger courthouse.
They selected Elmer G. Withers of Stamford
(15 mi. N) and the Texas Building Company of Fort
Worth as architect and contractor, respectively.
Completed in 1910, the Jones County courthouse is an excellent example
of Beaux Arts styling, with influences from the Arts and Crafts
movement found in the decorative painting uncovered during a 1990s
rehabilitation on the ceiling of the district courtroom. Other notable
features include the statue of Lady Justice atop the domed clock
tower and the pedimented porticoes with flanking pairs of Ionic
columns on each façade. Constructed of brick and Pecos
red sandstone, the Jones County courthouse continues to stand as
an important part of Anson's
architectural heritage and a center of politics and government for
the citizens of the county.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2000
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Jones County
Courthouse before remodeling
Photo courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
Photographer's
Note:
"The roof was remodeled shortly after this courthouse was built,
removing the turrets on the corner pavilions and shortening the height
of the clock tower."
"The door on the side of the front entrance staircase leads to
the basement where there is a small county museum.
The architect of this courthouse, Elmer George Withers, grew up in
Stamford, 17 miles north of Anson
on the Jones/Haskell
County line. Withers designed a similar looking courthouse
for Swisher County in 1909, but it was dramatically remodeled
in 1962, removing all of its Beaux-Arts style features." - Terry
Jeanson |
The 1910 Jones
County Courthouse today
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, January, 2007 |
1936 Centennial
- Highway Marker
Jones County
Site of emigrant
trail, the frontier military road, and Fort
Phantom Hill, founded in 1851 to guard the military road. County
created 1858 from Bexar and Bosque counties. Named for Anson
Jones (1798-1858), a veteran of San
Jacinto, minister to the U.S., Secretary of State and last President
of the Texas Republic. Phantom
Hill, in 1858-1861 a Butterfield Overland Mail Station, was in
1861-1865 a Civil War patrol point, trying to curb frontier raids
by Indians. The county was recreated in 1876, organized 1881.
Anson (at first called Jones City) is county seat.
(1965) |
A closer view
of the clock tower with a statue of Themis on top of the dome.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, January, 2007 |
Jones County
Courthouse front entrance.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, January, 2007 |
Decorative capitals
in the main floor hallway.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, January, 2007 |
Detailed artwork
on the ceiling of the district courtroom.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, January, 2007 |
"The district
courtroom retains its original two-story height, but the upper gallery
in the rear of the courtroom has been removed."
- Terry
Jeanson, 2007 photo |
Jones County
Courthouse as it appeared in 1939
Photo courtesy TXDoT |
More early views
of the Jones County Courthouse in Anson
Postcard courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/ |
| Postcard
courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/ |
| Postcard
courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/ |
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