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Lamar County
Courthouse as it appeared in 1939
Photo courtesy TXDoT |
The Present
Lamar County Courthouse
- Paris, Texas
Date: 1917
Architect: Barry & Smith and Sanguinet & Staats
Style: Classical Revival with Romanesque detail
Material: Built from marble and granite cleaned from the burned 1897
courthouse, the pink granite is from the same quarry as the State
Capital.
See Historical
Marker
An interior and exterior restoration of Lamar County courthouse was
completed in 2005. |
Lamar
County Courthouse
Recorded
Texas Historic Landmark
Terry
Jeanson, June 2007 photo |
Historical
Marker:
Lamar
County Courthouse
The March 1916
fire that left downtown Paris in ruins ravaged
Lamar County's massive
1897 Romanesque courthouse and tower, once thought indestructible.
On April 20, 1916, the Lamar County Commissioners Court chose local
designers and builders William G. Barry, Edwin R. Smith and Elmer
George Withers to work with the Fort
Worth architectural firm of Sanguinet & Staats to design a new
courthouse. The county judge and commissioners court and Carl G. Staats
reviewed the designs of several courthouses around the state.
Some Paris residents requested that the new
courthouse be built in the center of its lot in keeping with the city's
plans for wide roads at the town square, but the court decided that
it would be more efficient to build the new structure upon the same
foundation as the old courthouse. The upper ruins of the old courthouse
were dismantled by July 1916. In late August the commissioners chose
J. C. Buchanan and J. N. Gilder of Fort
Worth, who did significant work in rebuilding Paris
after the fire, to serve as contractors. Construction began in September.
By that time the restoration and renovation of several other buildings
around the square was nearing completion, downtown Paris
took on a modern appearance.
Completed by November 1917, the new courthouse was built of fireproof
concrete covered by rough pink granite salvaged from the 1897 building.
Distinctive features of the imposing Classical edifice include corner
pavilions and engaged granite columns and the Classical cornice with
matching terra cotta ornament (notably eagles and medallions). Marked
by triple-arched porticos, the primary entrances echo the Romanesque
style of the original structure.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2000 |
 |
Triple arched
entrance facing Main Street (BUS 271.)
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, June 2007 |
Lamppost with
open-winged eagles at its base over the Houston street entrance.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, June 2007 |
Lamar County
Courthouse before the 1916 fire
Old postcards |
The 1897
Lamar County Courthouse
|
This photo of
the 1897 Lamar County courthouse hangs in a display case on the fourth
floor of the current courthouse. The fourth floor jail in the courthouse
was vacated in 1993 and converted into office space.
Terry
Jeanson, June 2007 |
Photographer's
Note:
Although Kelsey's book lists the previous courthouse as 1896, the
historical marker in front of the courthouse says 1897. |
A tin-type of
Lamar County Courthouse
Photo courtesy Mark Armstrong |
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