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The 1930 Cottle
County Courthouse
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, September 2007 |
Date: 1930
Architect: Voelcker and Dixon
Style: Art-Moderne
Material: Brick and terra cotta
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
Although the style is Moderne, there are enough Classical elements
as well as Art Deco details to make it interesting. |
Cottle County
Courthouse as it appeared in 1939
Photo courtesy TXDoT |
Historical
Marker:
Cottle County
Courthouse
The Texas Legislature
created Cottle County in 1876 and named it for George Washington
Cottle, who died defending
the Alamo forty years earlier. Stage routes connected early ranches,
including the OX, SMS, and Matador, to established towns in other
counties. In late 1891, settlers petitioned for the county to be organized,
and an election in January 1892 formalized Cottle County's boundaries.
A geographically central site was selected as county seat and named
for Paducah, Kentucky, hometown of settler Richard Potts. County
business was conducted in existing homes until a permanent courthouse,
a small one-story frame building, was finished in May 1892.
That was replaced in November 1894 with a
two-story brick building, with a prominent bell tower, designed
by J. A. White.
The Cottle County economy flourished, and in April 1929, county commissioners
awarded a contract for a new courthouse to architect C. H. Leinbach.
Four days later, they rescinded that order and the citizens voted
on $150,000 in courthouse bonds, a measure that failed outside Paducah
but passed in the city and carried overall. The county gave a new
contract to the Wichita
Falls firm of Voelcker and Dixon, designers of 11 courthouses
across Texas. In the fall of 1929, work began here on one of the premier
Art Deco style courthouses in the state, a four-story brick and terra
cotta building that looms over the square. Stepped blocks project
from a central mass, with carved eagles, stylized figures of justice
and liberty, and inscriptions
above each of four entries. The unusual design, which has drawn
comparison to an Egyptian temple, makes it one of the most distinctive
public buildings in the region.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2005 |
 |
Inscription
above the south side entrance: "To no one will we sell, deny or
delay justice."
- Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, September 2007
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Photographer's
Note
"Each of the four entrances to the courthouse have inscriptions
above them. The north and south side entrances have stylized figures
of justice and liberty at the rooftop." - Terry
Jeanson |
Inscription
above the north side entrance: "He who comes here must come with
clean hands."
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, September 2007
|
The
inscription on the east side entrance: "He who seeks equity must do
equity."
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, September 2007 |
The
inscription on the west side entrance: "There is nothing so powerful
as truth."
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, September 2007 |
"My
tour guide told me that the courtroom is no longer in use and that
visitors have absconded with several of the rooms doorknobs as souvenirs."
- Terry
Jeanson, September 2007
|
1894 Cottle
County Courthouse
- Paducah, Texas
"[A] two-story
brick building, with a prominent bell tower, designed by J. A. White." |
The 1894 Cottle
County Courthouse
Photo courtesy THC |
Cottle County,
Texas Forum
Subject:
Update to Cottle County Courthouse
To preserve the classic art deco architecture of the courthouse
as well as nearby commercial buildings, the Cottle County courthouse
and surrounding square have recently been placed on the National
Register of Historic Places. - Greg Haviland, May 28, 2005
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