Thursday, June 28. Up early and looking for distant views of the Denton County courthouse. The view from the Texas Women's University campus was perfect. In the morning light the courthouse towers looked sureal.
This W.C. Dodson designed courthouse has been preserved and now serves as a museum and offices for the county.
Headed north on I-35 and soon arrived in Gainesville, seat of Cooke County. A couple of more miles and I would have crossed the Red River into Oklahoma. The tower of the Cooke County courthouse is visible on the skyline.
The 1910 era courthouse occupies the center of a square in downtown Gainesville. The building was designed by the Dallas firm of Lang & Witchell in a Beaux Arts meets Louis Sullivan/Frank Lloyd Wright design that is very handsome,
very much like the Johnson County courthouse in Cleburne by the same architects. I especially enjoyed the newly restored interiors. The colors and applied ornament, including the metal railings, are simply beautiful.
very much like the Johnson County courthouse in Cleburne by the same architects. I especially enjoyed the newly restored interiors. The colors and applied ornament, including the metal railings, are simply beautiful.
Gainesville is a railroad town so please indulge my passion for photographing trains and train stations.
Turning east at Gainsville, I drove to Sherman, seat of Grayson County. It was noon so I parked in the courthouse square and began looking for a restaurant. I couldn't help but notice that the Grayson County courthouse was surrounded by trees! This would be yet another difficult building to capture whole!
Across Travis Street from the courthouse I came a upon a restaurant with a most interesting name: Fulbelli's! The location was in a historic building, Kelly Square, that featured a mall-like interior. The restaurant was on the mezzanine level and included a carriage. I wonder how that found its way up the stairs.
I had a delightful meal and soon understood the true meaning of the restauarant's name. Think about it...
Corn chowder with breaded and grilled Jalapeno's. Delicious!
Here's another plug: www.facebook.com/fulbellis
Voelcker & Dixon, Architects, 1936.
With a full belly I made my way out into the heat of north Texas and circled the Grayson County courthouse, looking for a break in the trees through which I could see the entire building. Alas, it's not possible. I did find the twin courtrooms on either end of the second floor to be beautiful examples of a restrained neo-classical modernism. And, they still have the original wall-mounted fans! Please don't ever take them down!
Time to move on. I merged into heavy traffic on southbound U.S. Highway 75 and headed for Collin County. The guidebook to Texas Courthouses by Dr. Kelsey illustrates the 1979 Collin County courthouse in McKinney. It's brown brick and has all of the majesty that a 1970's "modern" office building could muster. Regardless, the guidebook promised that the earlier, historic courthouse still survived a few blocks from the new courthouse. Here's the 1874 (remodeled in 1927) courthouse in the McKinney square. It's now a performing arts center surrounded by a very up-scale shopping/dining district.
Hands down the winner of the best landscaped courthouse square!
I circled the square and wilted in the 100+ degree heat. Finding a cool gelato shop, I stopped for a vanilla-rasberry swirl gelato and a glass of water. "Where is the new courthouse from here?" I asked the clerk. "Oh, they tore that one down and built a new courthouse up on Highway 75," was the answer. Huh? Built in 1979 and already gone! Collin County IS growing very quickly. To confirm, I walked a couple of blocks to the location of the "new" courthouse and found this. Having seen photos of the now demolished courthouse, I have to say this is a great improvement...
Since I'd driven right past the latest "new" Collin County courthouse on my way into McKinney and not noticed it, I decided in the interest of time to proceed on to Rockwall County and save the current Collin County courthouse for another trip. You can find images of it and the 1979 version online if you're interested. Just search for Collin County courthouse photographs. Leaving McKinney, I drove east and then south to Rockwall County, the smallest, by area, county in Texas. At about 11 miles square, it's truly a small county. Take a look at the map on the Rockwall County page. Given the size of the county, the diminutive courthouse is just right. A dollhouse of a courthouse, if you will.
Of course, this being Texas, the building is surrounded by trees and vehicles. Here's the front view of the courthouse.
And, so I reached county number 158. Weary, but not worn, I joined the cars and trucks on I-30 and headed west, into Dallas County. It took an hour, but I reached Love Field in time for my flight to Houston on Southwest Airlines.
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