030 Ellis County

030 of 254: Ellis County Courthouse, Waxahachie, Texas. County Population: 179,484

Ellis County, Texas

"Ellis County is located in north central Texas. Waxahachie, the largest town and county seat, is on Interstate Highway 35E thirty miles south of Dallas. The county is bounded by Dallas County to the north, Kaufman to the east, Navarro and Hill counties to the south, and Johnson County to the west. Ellis County comprises 939 square miles of the Blackland Prairie. The terrain is level to rolling, with an elevation ranging from 300 to 700 feet above sea level.
"Acting on a bill sponsored by Gen. Edward H. Tarrant, the state legislature officially established Ellis County on December 20, 1849. It was drawn from Navarro County, organized in February of the following year, and probably named for Richard Ellis, president of the Convention of 1836. Waxahachie was named the county seat and established on land donated by E. W. Rogers in August 1850.
"A boundary dispute with Johnson County was temporarily settled during Reconstruction, when Ellis County ceded nearly 100 square miles of land. The argument resurfaced in the late 1880s and was finally peaceably settled by a new survey of the line in 1939."
Robert J. Haaser, "ELLIS COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online
I first visited the Ellis County courthouse on December 5, 2009, on a frigid afternoon. The light was very nice, but my stay was brief, as Hilary, my daughter, and I were on our way to Arlington for the Big XII championship football game that evening. I returned to Waxahachie on April 28, 2012, on a warm spring afternoon for second visit.

Ellis County Courthouse 1886

"The Ellis County Courthouse, designed in 1895 by J. Riely Gordon, is rich in Romanesque detail. Even though the courthouse was designed by Gordon, he was not directly involved in the construction of the courthouse. A set of Gordon's plans were sold to Ellis County by Otto Kroeger, a building contractor who supervised the courthouse's construction. When the building was completed in 1897, it stood nine stories tall and featured a total of 23,739 feet. The massive quality of the building is enhanced by the exterior surface treatment of the masonry: Pink granite with a rock-faced texture is combined with red sandstone for the window lintel and sill bands. Windows are typically Romanesque in detail with rounded arches and slender proportions. An extensive gray slate roof of steep pitch follows the various undulations around the exterior walls. Projecting from the roof are turrets with conical roofs and dormers with chimney extensions. The copper cornice, turret detailing and a terra cotta frieze below the cornice, further embellish the courthouse. The center of the courthouses cross axial plan is marked by a massive clock tower with four clock faces and a pyramidal roof."
The courthouse was restored with funding from the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program. The restoration project addressed deteriorated masonry, noncompliant systems, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements and inappropriate alterations in the interior. It was rededicated in October 2003.