Tarrant
County Courthouse History
Formed in 1849,
Tarrant County
was officially organized in 1850 with Birdville
as the county seat, the first settlement in Tarrant
County, which was formed around Camp Bird in 1848. The county
was named for Edward H. Tarrant, a military commander, Texas Ranger
and Indian fighter who was responsible for the removal of most of
the Indians who lived in the Tarrant
County area. Southwest of Birdville,
at the confluence of the Clear Fork and the West Fork of the Trinity
River another camp was formed in 1849, named Camp Worth after Mexican
War hero General William Jenkins Worth. The camp was officially
given the name Fort Worth. The town of Fort
Worth built up around the military outpost after it was abandoned
in 1853.
The county’s first courthouse, a wood frame structure, was built
in 1849 in Birdville
followed by a second in 1856. The second courthouse was thought
to be a Greek Revival, square plan antebellum style building. The
second courthouse, apparently, was never completed due to an election
held in 1856 to move the county seat to Fort
Worth. Fort Worth won by a slim
margin and the county records were moved to a temporary courthouse
there. The election results were declared invalid and another election
was held in 1860. This time, Fort Worth
won by a landslide with 548 votes. A non-existent site at the center
of the county received 301 votes and Birdville
received 4 votes.
Construction
on the county’s third courthouse, the first in Fort
Worth, began in 1860, but disruption caused by the Civil War
kept it from being completed until 1866. The stone courthouse is
depicted in a street drawing of Fort Worth,
ca. 1866, as a square building with three bays on each side, a hipped
roof and a hexagonal tower with a conical cupola and a spire. Its
design was typical of antebellum style courthouses. This courthouse
burned on March 29, 1876. Most of the county records were lost in
the fire in spite of repeated requests to install a fire-proof vault
in the courthouse.
In 1876, construction
began on the county’s fourth courthouse. Built by contractors Thomas
& Warner, it was a two-story, octagonal, Italianate style building
with protruding wings, a dome and a central tower. The buildings
details included arched windows and doors, corner quoins and a balustrade
around the central tower.
The county’s fifth courthouse, built in 1881, was essentially a
remodel of the 1876 building. Architect James J. Kane, who designed
the 1886
Bosque County courthouse, removed the building’s dome and added
a third floor with a new central tower, giving the courthouse a
look that resembled a Second Empire style building. In 1893, the
growing wealth and population of the county, in addition to its
escalating crime problem, prompted the County Commissioners Court
to vote to spend $500,000 for the construction of a new courthouse.
The final cost came to $408,840 and it outraged citizens to the
extent that they voted the entire Commissioner’s Court out of office.
Construction
on the sixth courthouse began in 1893 with the former courthouse
being demolished the following year. The new courthouse was completed
in 1895. Built in a Renaissance Revival/Beaux-Arts style out of
Texas pink granite with a steel frame, it was designed by Kansas
City architects Frederick C. Gunn and Louis S. Curtiss and built
by the Probst Construction Company of Chicago. This monumental courthouse,
with a height measuring 194 feet, is often compared to the Texas
Capitol building. It has a raised basement and four stories
with a domed central tower, ornate front entrance pavilion and domed
side pavilions. The building’s details, especially on the upper
floors, include columns, pediments, balustrades and entablatures.
The 1895 courthouse
retained its original appearance until the 1950s when a Civil Courts
Building, designed by Fort Worth architect
Wyatt C. Hedrick, was completed in 1958, attaching it to the west
side of the courthouse, destroying much of the stonework and entry
stairs. The white, limestone addition with louvered windows and four
bas-relief sculptures of a winged Lady Justice, was considered one
of the ugliest buildings in downtown Fort
Worth, referred to as the “hemorrhoid to the west” and “a space
age refrigerator.” In 1983, the 1895 courthouse received a $9 million
renovation which removed false ceilings, restored floors, courtrooms
and stairwells and re-opened the rotunda. A 1988 remodeling of the
1958 Civil Courts Building, by architect George C.T. Woo, covered
the structure in synthetic stucco that was painted to match the stone
of the 1895 courthouse. Many buildings were added to the Tarrant County
courthouse complex over the years to the west of the 1895 courthouse,
including the Criminal Justice Building (1918), the Criminal Courts
Building (1962), The Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center (1990) and
to the southeast, the Family Law Center (2005.) A new Civil Courts
Building being built to the east of the 1895 courthouse should be
completed in 2015. In 2012, a $4.5 million restoration was completed
on the clock tower of the 1895 courthouse followed by the demolition
of the 1958 west side addition in 2013. Two of the winged Lady Justices
from the 1958 addition will be attached to the new Civil Courts Building.
A restoration of the original west side entrance to the 1895 Tarrant
County courthouse should be completed by the end of 2014.
Terry
Jeanson
July
10, 2014.
Sources: The Handbook of Texas Online, The Birdville Historical
Society at www.birdvillehistory.org, The Texas Historical Commission’s
Texas Historic Sites Atlas at http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/shell-county.htm
and the Texas National Register Program Narrative at http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/shell-desig.htm,
Architecture in Fort Worth – Downtown Fort Worth at www.fortwortharchitecture.com/downtown.htm,
Newspaper article from the Fort Worth Democrat, Issue of April 1,
1876, Newspaper article from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram – “Couthouse’s
future to look like its past” by Anna M. Tinsley, May 31, 2007, Newspaper
article from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram – “Historic Tarrant County
Courthouse about to get some breathing room” by Steve Campbell, April
23, 2013, The People’s Architecture: Texas Courthouses, Jails, and
Municipal Buildings by Willard B. Robinson, 1983, and The Courthouses
of Texas by Mavis P.Kelsey Sr. and Donald H. Dyal, 2nd edition, 2007.
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