Hunt County Courthouse

Throughout its history, the Hunt County Courthouse has stood as a symbol of pride and prosperity for the citizens of Hunt County. Serving as the seat of local government since 1929, the courthouse is the latest of seven buildings to house this northeast Texas county's government. The building fills the entire public square set aside for the courthouse in the original layout of Greenville in 1847. The building is significant in the area of Politics/Government for its role as the center of government in Hunt County and in the area of Architecture, its form and location represent common trends in Texas courthouses. The design of the building, by architects C.H. Page and Brother, of Austin, and William R. Ragsdale of Greenville, blends Classical Revival styling with step-back massing of the modernistic Art Deco style, representing a transition between the traditional influences and the emerging Moderne/Art Deco style of the 1920s and 30s.

When organized as the seat of Hunt County government, the layout of Greenville followed a plan typical of 19th-century Texas county seats with a central public square of one or two blocks reserved for a courthouse, city hall, or jail (Robinson, 1983:16). This public area was eventually faced not by other government or ecclesiastical buildings, but by rectangular, flat-fronted commercial buildings (Robinson, 1983:16). The public square, as the site of political speeches, traveling amusements, and, with its wells and cisterns, a beacon to tired and thirsty travelers, became the nucleus of 19th century Texas towns (Robinson, 1972:342-343). The most common arrangement, as seen in Greenville and other Texas cities such as LaGrange, Waxahachie, Dallas, and Houston, consisted of a simple one-block square within a grid of streets (Robinson, 1983:17). Courthouses erected on this square generally required similar entrances on all four facades, providing equal prominence for all surrounding businesses. Even when the buildings did not have an actual entrance on all four sides, designs called for four similar, if not identical, facades (Robinson, 1972:344).

The first state legislature created Hunt County on April 11, 1846, naming the county for General Memucan Hunt, an instrumental figure in the annexation of Texas to the Union. Shortly after the creation of the county, McQuinney Howell Wright, a prominent landowner, offered land for the county seat to be named Greenville in honor of Thomas Jefferson Green, a member of the Mier Expedition. A public auction on January 16, 1847, sold lots in the newly platted town. The center lot, designated as the public square, remained vacant until the county could acquire funds to erect a suitable seat of justice. In the meantime, the first courthouse, a log cabin approximately 20 feet by 22 feet, was built on the west side of the square. The second courthouse, a frame building on the northwest corner of the square, soon replaced this building. Finally, in 1859 a brick courthouse, the county's third, was erected in the center of the square. This building lasted until 1874, when damage from a storm caused it to be condemned in June 1870. Limited tax dollars in the years following the Civil War forced the courthouse to survive the four years after the storm with only patches and repairs. After this, The Hunt County Commissioners Court bought the Methodist Church for office space, making it the fourth building to house the courts and county offices. The Methodists, in turn, bought the old courthouse, tore it down, and used the materials to build the Wesley Methodist Church. After clearing the courthouse lot, construction began in 1883 on an ornate red brick building with white stone trim, becoming the county's fifth courthouse. Thirteen months later a fire destroyed this building and most of the surrounding businesses. Because the Commissioners Court had the foresight to purchase fire insurance and invest in fire-proof vaults, all the records survived and the county built a new courthouse with very little expense to the taxpayers. This sixth courthouse, dedicated in 1885, closely resembled its predecessor.

As early as June 11, 1923, E.G. Arnold presented a petition with 200 signatures to the Commissioners Court for an election to sell $400,000 worth of bonds for erecting and equipping a new courthouse and jail. The election was set for July 21, 1923, but on July 9, 1923, the County Commissioners Court issued an order to rescind the election, giving no reason for the change.
On October 8, 1927, a bond election for the sum of $400,000, the same dollar amount as the proposed bond election of 1923, was held for the building and equipping of a new courthouse. This time the proposal passed by a slim margin. N.C. Peak was county judge at the time with C. W. McClurg, Will Norton, Albert Treadway, and George Kelley as County Commissioners. The county offices moved into surrounding leased office space and construction began shortly after the razing of the red brick courthouse. Plans called for the new building to encompass the entire block in contrast to the previous, smaller courthouses. The Grand Lodge IOOF of Texas laid the cornerstone on August 30, 1928.

Charles H. Page and his brother Louis C., of the Austin firm of C.H. Page and Brother, designed the courthouse along with Greenville architect William R. Ragsdale. The Page Brothers designed many public buildings in Texas including the Chambers County Courthouse, city hall buildings in Brownsville, Mexia, and Eagle Lake, and the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, built between 1930-36, shortly after the Hunt County Courthouse. Charles H., whom city directories show to have been practicing architecture since at least 1898, became partners with his son Charles H. Jr. after Louis' death about 1935. C.H. Page and Son continued until the elder Charles' death in 1957. Altogether, the firm was responsible for hundreds of public structures and numerous other commercial, residential, and educational buildings in Texas, particularly in Austin. Today, the family's practice continues through Page-Southerland-Page, an Austin firm started in 1939 by Louis' two sons Louis Jr. and George M.

Ragsdale visited every modern courthouse in the southwest to learn improved building methods to make the new courthouse a composite of these styles and methods. Early uses of the Moderne style in Texas architecture represented a compromise between tradition and progress (Robinson, 1983:268). The design of the Hunt County Courthouse reflects the integration of traditional details with modernistic forms. The building's centralized massing, of symmetrical blocks rising above a base form, geometric ornamentation, and terra cotta columns in the Ionic order, accomplish this blend of modernity and tradition (Robinson, 1983:268). Traditional features retained in the courthouse include entrances at all four facades, although now at two different levels and identical detailing on all four facades. Other courthouses of the era also display centralized, cubical massing, although with less traditional and more modernistic ornamentation, such as the Eastland County Courthouse (1928), the Potter County Courthouse (1930-1932), and the Travis County Courthouse (1930-1936) (Robinson, 1983:269-270).

Ben W. Shepherd and Sons, prominent Greenville builders, served as general contractors for the construction of the building. Globe-Wernecke Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, supplied the wood paneling, judges' benches, and office chairs. They sent Carl Walker, a superintendent from the plant, to personally supervise the installation of the furniture, sold through W. Walworth Harrison, the local dealer, and E. B. Allen, the district agent in Dallas. W. Walworth Harrison served as general chairman of the committee to dedicate the courthouse and later became very involved with the Texas Historical Commission in Hunt County, writing a History of Greenville and Hunt County, Texas.

Other suppliers included Art Metal Furniture of Jamestown, New York, who provided the office furniture, including the latest desks, equipment, and filing cabinets. Newman-Parker Company of Greenville installed the heating and plumbing. N. E. Busby and Company of Dallas dealt with the electrical construction and electrical fixtures. The American Elevator Company of Dallas installed the elevator equipment. Anderson and Son of Greenville laid the linoleum throughout the offices and filing vaults. W.E. Bradley of Greenville had the paint contract and used Sherwin-Williams paint furnished by White Brothers Paint Company of Greenville, some of which remains on the windows. The International Recording Time Company of Dallas installed the clock system above the north and south entrances and in each department controlled by a master clock in the County Judge's office.

The design of this courthouse heavily emphasized fire-proofing and the safekeeping of county records. All housings for records were steel vaulted. Numerous exits stood readily available in case of emergency. Every floor featured "modern" plumbing, with segregated public toilets for both men and women. Every department also had its own private toilet facilities. A boiler system on the first-floor basement provided heating and hot water. The primary boiler used natural gas while the secondary boiler ran on coal. The coal shuttle door can still be found beside the south basement door.

On April 11, 1929, the date of the 83rd anniversary of Hunt County, dedication ceremonies took place for the seventh and latest Hunt County Courthouse. Old photographs show large crowds in attendance. Festivities included a parade, tableau, flag-raising, birthday cake, and reception. Feelings of pride and achievement prevailed. The Greenville Morning Herald noted that "even the most optimistic could hardly visualize the beautiful edifice that was to be built (sic) with that $400,000. It has been used to erect and furnish a courthouse that will adequately serve the needs of Hunt County for fifty years." The dedication program described the building as "palatial" with a courtroom suggesting "regal throne rooms" paneled with beautiful oak. The program continued by noting that the jury quarters with "their inviting baths... will entice the reluctant juror to gladly spend a night if necessary on a tedious case." At the time of the dedication, T.J. O'Neal was county judge with George Kelley, C. W. McClurg, D.B. English, and Frank Norton as commissioners. Joe M. Fugitt was county auditor and C. D. Fuller was secretary of the court. Judge O'Neal formally presented the new courthouse to the people of Hunt County while the Honorable Sam H. Whitley, president of East Texas State Teachers College in Commerce, received the gift of the new building on behalf of the people.

In a special edition, The Greenville Morning Herald published a detailed look at the new courthouse, beginning on the first floor and working up to the top floor of the jail. The following six paragraphs summarize the newspaper's description of the building's original interior and its uses, which have changed very little over the years.

Two elevators ran from the first floor all the way up to the top floor jail. One of the elevators featured a hold-over cell for transporting prisoners by the sheriff's department. The original elevators are still in use.

The first floor, or ground floor, featured outside entrances on all four sides and five stairways leading to the main second floor, with the ten-foot wide main staircase made of marble. The Otho Morgan Post 17 of the American Legion occupied the northwest corner of the floor. The janitor's closet on the north side of the hallway housed the electrical switchboard for the building. The northeast corner housed a vaulted safe for county records connected to the county clerk's office on the floor above by a spiral stairway still in use. At the east door was the men's restroom, with the one on the south side of the hall for "whites" and the one on the north for "Negroes." The previously mentioned boiler room occupied the south side of the floor. The county agricultural agents had offices and a reception room in the southwest corner, which also housed a vault for automobile highway license plates and a spiral staircase (now removed) that connected to the tax collector's office on the floor above. Offices were also provided on the first floor for Justices of the Peace One and Two and the constable for Precinct One. These elected officials had been previously housed elsewhere due to constraints on space, as they are today. The women's restroom, also segregated, sat at the west entrance.

The county clerk's office and file room, storage vault, reception room, and assembly room of the county school superintendent occupied almost half of the second floor. The county auditor occupied the northwest corner with a reception room, work room, and filing vault. On the south side sat the County Treasurer's office and a large money vault. The tax collector's office next door featured seven steel collection windows, a large public space, a private office, and a large money vault. As noted, a spiral stairway led to the highway license filing room below permitting instant access to every record needed by this office. The tax assessor's reception room and workroom also adjoined the tax collector's office.

An eleven-foot-wide stairway led from the second to the third floor, designed to house the county and district court systems. The office of the district judge with an adjoining office for the court reporter occupied the northwest corner. The north side housed the office of the district clerk which featured a special vault for records along with the sheriff's department with offices for deputies. A hold-over cell adjoining one of the elevators sat next to the deputies' offices. Prisoners or attached witnesses could be placed in this cell for safekeeping. Jail visitors also placed "packages" here while visiting prisoners in the jail on the floors above. The main reception room and private office for the sheriff occupied the north side of the third floor, along with two rooms for private attorneys and witness rooms. The district attorney's office and reception room occupied the northeast corner, while the southeast corner housed the county courtroom. Quartersawn oak was used to construct the new and matching furniture, including the judge's screen, witness box, clerk's table, reporter's table, and six jury chairs. A large number of opera chairs provided accommodation for spectators. Behind the courtroom sat the private office and reception room of the county judge and the adjoining offices and reception room of the county commissioners.

The district courtroom occupied practically all of the west side of this floor. The district courtroom utilized two floors with a twenty-four-foot ceiling and balcony. Quartersawn oak was again used for the judge's screen, the jury box, witness chairs, and desks for the clerk and court reporters. To make the jury as content as possible, the jury box featured comfortable chairs and brass foot rails. The main floor of the courtroom featured benches for spectators, while the balcony, which could be entered from the floor above, featured opera chairs. The jury deliberation room sat on the west side of the courtroom. Spiral stairs led to the dormitory on the floor above, furnished with modern sleeping quarters and built-in tub baths, showers, and toilets. To the southeast side of the district court sat the venire room where possible jurors waited. The nearby county attorney's office featured a reception room and private offices for both the county attorney and the assistant county attorney. To the east side of this floor sat another identical district courtroom, built to allow for the hearing of two different trials at the same time. When the courthouse was built in 1929, the community hoped that the District Court of Appeals would be located in Hunt County, but Texarkana was chosen instead. This courtroom featured a dormitory rationalized to the public as being for women, if and when women ever served on juries in district court cases.

The smaller top two floors of the Hunt County Courthouse housed the county jail. Fire-proof stairs and two elevators provided entrance to the jail floors. Southern Prison Company built the jail and boasted that it "was practically impossible for a prisoner to escape the new Hunt County jail." The jail cells that occupied the center section on both floors were vaulted and segregated. On either side sat the day rooms where the prisoners ate meals. A lever box on the guarded passageway operated the cell doors so that it was not necessary for the jailer to enter the cells or the day rooms to handle prisoners. The guarded passageway ran the perimeter of the 48 cells, 24 designated for Anglos and 24 designated for African Americans. The hospital unit, also segregated and with an operating room at the center, occupied the north side where sick prisoners could be cared for while staying separated from the other prisoners and kept just as securely. The northwest corner housed the "delousing plant" or disinfecting room, with shower baths and all the facilities for cleaning prisoners as they emerged from the elevator. The private bath, bedroom, office, and reception room for the jailer sat on the northeast side of the floor. The second jail floor was somewhat smaller and used for women and juveniles "not regarded as such dangerous prisoners as the felons below." These cells were also segregated. The jail kitchen also occupied this floor, with a dumb waiter used to send food to the day rooms on the floor below.

The building of the seventh courthouse late in the 1920s had much significance for Hunt County. It came at a time when the area, state, and country were leaving the agrarian past and entering the technological age. Even the architecture of the building indicates a transition from the Classical Revival style of the early 1900s to the coming Art Deco period. Jay C. Henry writes in his book Architecture in Texas 1895-1945 that the Courthouse "is probably best viewed as a monument to the transition from Beaux Arts Classicism to the modernistic style." The massive 40,000 square-foot building with symmetrical facades, wide entrance stairs, arched doorways, and large Ionic columns typifies the late Classical Revival style popular in government buildings during the early 20th century. At the same time, the flat, square massing and geometric ornamentation show Art Deco influences, part of the modernistic movement in architecture during the early 20th century.

Certainly, those in attendance at the dedication in 1929 could not have foreseen the changes that would occur in their lifetime. In a little over six months, the greatest economic depression ever would hit the world. In a little over ten years, the world would once again be on the brink of world war and Hunt County became the site of Majors Field (now B-Systems), an airfield to train pilots in both the European and Pacific Theaters which also became a major player in world defense during the Cold War.

When the courthouse was dedicated, the local newspaper predicted the building would serve the citizens of Hunt County for at least fifty years and maybe into the 21st century. The building's location on the public square in the center of town and the design of the building, meant to be viewed from all four sides, is evidence of the county government's central role in the community and the effect the courthouse was meant to have on the visitors and citizens alike. The building has maintained its historic character and continues to serve as the seat of local government. A few major changes between the original design of the building and the current exterior condition mar the building's historic fabric. Today, as Hunt County nears its 150th anniversary and the turn of another century, its citizens can hope that this courthouse will serve at least another fifty years.