Hutchinson County Courthouse

The Hutchinson County Courthouse, designed by noted Texas architect W.C. Townes, is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance for Government and Architecture. The four-story brick and limestone courthouse is a good regional example of the Beaux Arts style as interpreted for civic use and is the only building of this style in Stinnett. The courthouse remains as a symbol of the community's prosperity during the 1920s oil boom days and of the citizens' confidence in their future. The most prominent building in this small rural town, it has served continuously as the seat of county government since its completion in 1928.

Hutchinson County, Texas

Located in the north-central Texas Panhandle, approximately 60 miles northeast of Amarillo, Hutchinson County comprises 871 square miles of plains and broken terrain. The Canadian River, fed by several small creeks, flows from southwest to northeast across the county. The northern part of the county is high rolling plains and supports crops such as wheat, corn, alfalfa, and grain sorghums, as well as cattle, hog, and poultry raising. The southern portion of Hutchinson County is the center of oil, gas, petrochemical, and synthetic-rubber production in the Panhandle and is home to the world's largest natural gas pumping station, which supplies gas to cities as far west as Denver and as far east as Indianapolis.

Though Spanish, Mexican, and American explorers and traders traversed the area as early as the 1540s, clashes with Native Americans prevented permanent settlement of the northern Panhandle for centuries. The struggle for control of the Southern Plains (of which the Hutchinson County area is a part) came to a head in the 1870s, as the U.S. Army and various Native American tribes fought a series of skirmishes and battles known as the Red River War of 1874-1875. Quanah Parker's attack on a buffalo trading post at Adobe Walls (in what would later become Hutchinson County) ignited the war in June of 1874. A relentless Army campaign steadily forced the Native Americans to reservations in Indian Territory. The last band of free-roaming Southern Plains Indians finally surrendered on June 2, 1875. Settlers moved into the Panhandle almost immediately, establishing huge ranches for the most part. The railroads soon followed, providing the farmers and ranchers access to distant markets and allowing communities to grow.

The Texas Legislature created Hutchinson County along with 53 others in 1876, but the county was not formally organized until 1901. At the time, just over 300 people lived in the county. Plemons, a community established a few years earlier in 1898, was designated the county seat. The county's namesake is pioneer jurist Judge Anderson Hutchinson. The first county courthouse, built by J.P. Orr for $95, was a wooden building intended for temporary use. The county solicited bids for the construction of the primary courthouse in June 1901. For $2,670, E.E. Ackers built a simple, two-story wood courthouse.

Important to the numerous area ranchers as a river-crossing town, Plemons never managed to attract a healthy population and grew slowly. By 1905 only a handful of businesses and fifteen families called the town home. The community never even erected a church, opting instead to hold services in the school or in the courthouse. Dominated by large ranches, Hutchinson County as a whole remained sparsely populated for its first couple of decades. The county's entire population numbered just 721 in 1920, according to the U.S. Census.

Oil and Gas Bring Wealth-and a New County Seat-to Hutchinson County

Though the oil and gas industry reigned in other parts of the state as early as 1901, the Panhandle did not enjoy the benefits until its discovery led to successful drilling in Amarillo in 1918. The boom was on. Five years later, J. C. Whittington drilled the first flowing well in Hutchinson County. Townsites and oil camps sprang up all over the county to accommodate drillers and the various petroleum-related industries, and railroads built branch lines as quickly as they could to service them all.

One of many men to take advantage of the boom was Albert Sidney Stinnett, a successful Panhandle developer who worked tirelessly to connect Amarillo to northern markets via the railroad. In 1925, he financed the first three months of construction on the Rock Island Railway branch from Amarillo to Liberal, Kansas. Other financiers quickly stepped in to help. Stinnett and various partners platted numerous new townsites along the Rock Island right-of-way. One of the first was in Hutchinson County and named in his honor. Lots went up for sale in Stinnett in 1926. Veteran town promoters A.P. "Ace" Borger and J.T. Peyton went to work and quickly sold more than $400,000 worth of lots, bringing the new town's population to nearly 2,500 almost overnight. Though Stinnett grew rapidly that first year, it did not grow as large or as quickly as other boomtowns in the Panhandle. Borger, in south-central Hutchinson County, for example, grew to an estimated 45,000 within ninety days of its founding in 1926 and gained a reputation as a rowdy, violent, and lawless community.

Plemons, however, was not able to capitalize on the boom, and the railroad chose to bypass it in favor of towns in closer proximity to the oilfields. In a special election in September of 1926, Hutchinson County citizens voted to move the county seat to centrally-located Stinnett, and Plemons began a gradual decline. Though the area oil boom kept the town alive for about twenty more years, the population was just 100 in 1940 and ceased to exist by the early 1950s. Neither of Hutchinson County's first two courthouses still stand; in fact, the cemetery is all that remains of Plemons today."

While Plemons declined, however, the rest of the county began to prosper thanks to the petroleum industry. By 1926, the Panhandle was a major producing region, with most of the activity centered in Hutchinson County and neighboring Carson County. Peak production during the era of exploration in the Panhandle occurred in 1927, at 39.4 million barrels, principally from Hutchinson County. Related industries such as refineries, carbon black operations, and gasoline stripper plants quickly followed, as did all of the businesses necessary to support such a large, new population. Like it had in other places in Texas, the oil and gas industry diversified the formerly agricultural-based economy in the Panhandle." Amid this explosive and unprecedented economic growth, Hutchinson County built its fourth and final courthouse.

A New County Seat and a New County Courthouse

Moving the county seat to the new town of Stinnett meant, of course, that Hutchinson County once again found its government operating out of temporary quarters (the Stinnett Townsite Company's office building at 600 Main Street) until the completion of a permanent courthouse. The Stinnett Townsite Company (Albert Sidney Stinnett, president) sold the land to the county for one dollar in January 1927. By October of that year, the commissioner's court voted to accept Amarillo architect William C. Townes' plans and specifications for a courthouse and jail and almost immediately opened the project to construction bids. Amarillo contractor C.S. Lambie & Company won the competitive process with the lowest bid of $341,880 and secured the contract on November 26, 1927. The commissioners approved a bond for the construction price on February 15, 1928, and then accepted the courthouse for occupancy on December 3.

The headline of the December 13, 1928, issue of the Borger Daily Herald boldly reported that organizers expected 5,000 people to attend the courthouse opening. The article proclaims that the new courthouse "typify[ies] the spirit of phenomenal progress made in this section, with a view to the future" and lauds its modern and complete features, namely sophisticated courtroom acoustics, vaults for every department, and bath suites for every judge. It continues with these remarks about the courthouse's size:

"A year ago when the contract was let for the building, it was thought by some that the planners and architects had verged on extravagance. When the various county officers were brought together under one roof, and system brought about, it was found that the designers had provided wisely. There is a place for everything. Offices are so arranged that with the progress that is expected for this county in the next 10 years there will be efficient and convenient arrangements for handling the enlarged business."

The citizens of Hutchinson County celebrated the new courthouse's debut with a twelve-hour opening reception held on December 15, 1928. The festivities began at noon with the Ladies' Missionary Society of Stinnett Baptist Church serving lunch for all visitors, followed by a performance of the Borger Concert Band. Numerous speeches and other concerts took place throughout the rest of the afternoon. Electric lights illuminated every room after dark.
Unfortunately, the power company had yet to install the permanent line, and the temporary one was quickly overloaded, throwing the transformer and plunging the building into complete darkness during Judge Newton P. Willis' address. Undeterred, he continued speaking while the local Boy Scouts lit candles and kerosene lamps. The evening ended with a dance from nine until midnight.

The rate of initial growth and newfound prosperity could not last. Stinnett's population fell to just 500 by 1930, as crude oil prices plummeted and the Great Depression set in. Fewer than twenty businesses still operated in the town-down from more than seventy-five just two years before. Though prices were low, however, petroleum production remained relatively steady in other parts of Hutchinson County and kept many people working welcome news since the agricultural sector was decimated by the Dust Bowl. By 1960, the population grew to 2,695 in Stinnett (Hutchinson County totaled 34,419) thanks in part to a steady growth in the area's gas and petroleum industries during the war and post-war years.

Though much of the county's population and economy centers around Borger largest of the county's communities the county government seat remains steadfast in Stinnett and the town retains some importance as a commercial center for the surrounding area. Nonetheless, the population of Stinnett continues to fall. The 2010 census recorded 1,881 persons living in Stinnett (Hutchinson County totaled 22,150).

Despite the population decline, the Hutchinson County Courthouse remains the central hub of county government and political activity in Hutchinson County and houses all vital functions and offices of county government. All levels of justice are administered from within the courthouse, from Justice of the Peace to the District Courts, meaning everything from traffic tickets to capital murder cases is heard within the walls. County commissioners conduct public business, county clerks administer elections, and local politicians often use the courthouse as a forum for political events. Numerous civic groups conduct trainings and other functions, and the media visits often to report on it all. The Hutchinson County Courthouse is an active, working building that conducts a large amount of business each day.

William C. Townes, Architect

Born June 28, 1883, in Haskell, Texas, William C. Townes moved to Amarillo in 1905 as a carpenter. While working as a carpenter, he studied architecture from home, finding work with the Santa Fe Railway during World War I. Townes partnered with J. Ray Smith in the architectural firm of Smith & Townes from 1920-1924 and formed the firm of Townes, Lightfoot, and Funk in 1927. The firm disbanded upon Rabey Funk's death in 1939 and from that point on the firm operated as William C. Townes and Associates. He was a member of Amarillo's Covenant Presbyterian Church, the Elks' Lodge, the American Institute of Architects, and the Texas Society of Architects, and was active for several years in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He died on May 21, 1961 in Amarillo, Texas."

Though he designed numerous residential and institutional buildings, Townes specialized in courthouses, reportedly designing twenty-seven in total throughout west Texas and eastern New Mexico. His eight Texas county courthouses include Briscoe County (1922), Castro County (1940), Childress County (1939), Dallam County (1922; NR 1992), Hansford County (1931), Hutchinson County (1927), Potter County (1932; NR 1996), and Ward County (1940). All eight actively still serve as county courthouses. Townes served as the contractor for the Jons-Gilvin House in Amarillo (1907; NR 1992) and also designed the Potter County Library (1922) in Amarillo, as well as numerous school buildings throughout the Texas Panhandle.

The County Commissioners Court meeting minutes do not reference any discussion of design selection, but Revival styles were popular for civic buildings in Texas during the first decades of the twentieth century. The Hutchinson County Courthouse was built during the waning years of the Golden Age of Texas courthouse construction. Spanning from the 1880s to the 1920s, this golden age coincided with a period of tremendous economic and cultural development in the state and the increase in wealth led to an increase in new public buildings." Author Carla Breeze points out that like many architects working on civic buildings at the time, Townes "was concerned with designs that reflected regionalism, which was concurrent with the search for 'Americanism,' or a greater appreciation for one's region and culture." This is illustrated in the Hutchinson County Courthouse through the prominent depiction of the region's three major industries on the entry friezes, as well as the use of the Lone Star in the exterior pediments and interior floor embellishments. The use of such elements in combination with Revival design has led some to refer to the style as "Texas Renaissance Revival."

The Hutchinson County Courthouse is the sole visible reminder of Stinnett's early growth and prosperity; very few buildings from that era remain and none exhibit the same high style and exuberance. For serving Hutchinson County citizens as the seat of county government continuously since 1928, and as a significant example of regionally-interpreted Beaux Arts civic architecture designed by a prominent local architect, the Hutchinson County Courthouse is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for Government and Architecture, both at the local level of significance.