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San Jacinto County Courthouse
(SE corner)
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, December 2006 |
SAN JACINTO COUNTY
COURTHOUSESBy
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, February
8, 2011
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
markter textSAN
JACINTO COUNTY COURTHOUSEA
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 | | |
