| |
The 1930 Cottle County courthouse
today
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. |
Historical
Marker Text Cottle
County CourthouseThe
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later, they rescinded that order and the citizens voted on $150,000 in courthouse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 |
 |
Cottle
County Courthouse as it appeared in 1939
Photo courtesy TXDoT
|
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 south side entrance: "To no one will we sell, deny or delay justice."
- Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, September 2007
|
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 ForumSubject:
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
Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, and vintage/historic
photos of their town/subject, please contact
us. | |
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