ARCHER COUNTY
COURTHOUSE HISTORY
by Terry
Jeanson
Archer County
was formed in 1858 from neighboring Clay
County, but the area remained unsettled until the 1870s. By
1875, the U.S. Army had driven the remaining Indian tribes out of
North Texas and the county was officially organized in 1880. The
county and county seat were named for Branch Tanner Archer, a doctor
from Virginia who arrived in Texas in 1831 and quickly became involved
in the Texas independence movement, including participating in the
battle
of Gonzales in 1835. He later became a legislator in the Texas
Congress and the secretary of war for the Republic of Texas.
The first courthouse was a frameless 20’ x 20’ one-story wooden
building donated by the founder of Archer
City, Dr. C. B. Hutto, a dentist from South Carolina, who also
donated lots for the town square. The courthouse had one large room
that was used as the courtroom and by the county attorney and four
smaller rooms that were used by the county clerk, sheriff, tax collector,
surveyor and treasurer. It was used until a much larger courthouse
was completed in 1892.
Built with brown quarry-faced sandstone obtained locally, the 1892
courthouse was designed by Fort
Worth architect Alonzo N. Dawson in the Richardsonian Romanesque
style in which he was well versed. Dawson’s plans were selected
from among twenty five plans that were submitted after the Commissioners
Court of Archer County had invited architects to submit plans for
a courthouse which would cost not less than $25,000 but not more
than $35,000. Contractors J. S. DeWees and Jacob Rath of Throckmorton
were hired to construct the building, contracted at $32,500.
The courthouse has large entryway arches on each side, two on the
north and south sides and three on the east and west sides. In the
center of the north and south sides on the second story, there are
openings which resemble Palladian style windows with balustrades
above them. As originally built, the corner pavilions contained
arched windows on the first and second floors which were surmounted
by a roof with a convex curve that had bulls-eye windows in the
center and square, flat caps that were slightly hipped. An octagonal
clock tower, clad in sheet metal, rose from the center of the
building with a large truncated cupola and a lantern on top.
In 1926, another noted Fort
Worth based architect, Elmer G. Withers, who had already designed
seven county courthouses in Texas at that time, was hired to
remodel and expand the 1892 courthouse. The central clock tower
and roofs on the corner pavilions were removed and a third story
was added. The arches over the windows on the second floor of the
pavilions were removed and replaced by simple lintels which also
frame the third floor windows. Gabled roofs with red clay tile now
adorn the center of each side of the building. The interior was
also altered, including the lowering of the ceiling in the district
courtroom and the elimination of the district courtroom balcony.
Wood floors were covered with vinyl tile and in 1960, metal windows
were installed to replace the original wooden windows.
Because of the extensive remodeling in 1926, when the county prepared
to restore the 1892 courthouse in the early 2000s, it wasn’t feasible
to restore the building to its original condition, so it was restored
to its 1926 condition. This decision also preserved the additions
made by Elmer G. Withers. A planning grant of over $120,000 in 2000
was followed by a construction grant of over $2.8 million in 2002
from the Texas Historical Commission’s Historic Courthouse Preservation
Program towards the building’s restoration. Wooden windows were
put back into the building and the wooden floors were restored.
The district courtroom was also restored to its original two-story
configuration with its upper balcony. A new elevator was installed
and the building also received modern electrical, plumbing and environmental
systems. The work was completed and the courthouse was rededicated
on May 12, 2005.
Terry
Jeanson, April 28, 2015
Sources: The Handbook
of Texas Online; The Texas Historical Commission at http://www.thc.state.tx.us;
The Texas Historical Commission’s County Atlas: Texas National Register
Profile at http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/shell-desig.htm; The City
of Archer City at http://www.archercity.org/VisitorInformation/history.html
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