Jack County Courthouse

The Jack County Courthouse has served as the center of county government since 1940. In 1938 the county received a grant from the federal Public Works Administration to construct a new judicial building, supplementing local bond funding. Architectural firm Voelcker & Dixon of Wichita Falls, Texas, produced a design that followed contemporary trends, blending traditional elements from classical architecture with popular modernistic forms, ornamentation, fixtures, and finishes, resulting in a richly textured and finely detailed building. The courthouse acts as the center of all upper levels of government in Jack County by providing not only the administration of law but government record storage, and a center of elections and their administration, and until recently, the county jail was housed on the 3rd floor. For its decades of service as the center of Jack County government, the courthouse is nominated in the area of Government at the local level of significance. It is also nominated in the area of Architecture at the local level of significance as an excellent example of Texas's early modern courthouses.

Jack County Historic Overview

Jack County is bordered by Clay, Archer, and Montague counties to the north, Young County to the west, Palo Pinto and Parker counties to the south, and Wise County to the east. Before Anglo settlement, Jack County served as a borderland between the Caddo to the east and the Comanches to the west. The area of Jack County was included in the Texan Emigration and Land Company lands, more commonly known as the Peters Colony. Anglo settlers began arriving in the mid-1850s, and by 1856 the first settlement, Keechi, was established. Most early settlers arrived from the middle Southern states, many by way of Smith County or other parts of Texas. The Texas legislature approved the establishment of the county in August 1856, naming it for William H. and Patrick C. Jack, participants in the Texas Revolution. Centrally located Mesquiteville (later renamed Jacksboro) was designated county seat in 1858. The Butterfield Overland Mail served the town until 1861, and regular postal service began in 1859.

Jack County never developed a plantation economy, although thirty-seven slaves lived in the county immediately before the Civil War. The earliest newspaper in the county (the Whiteman, established in 1860) advocated for secession, but county residents voted 76 to 14 against it in February 1861. Jacksboro was the most westward settlement in Texas after the Civil War, although it had been devastated by Indian raids and most of the buildings were in ruins. Although federal troops returned to the area after the war, Indian raids continued. In July 1866, initial elements of the 6th US Cavalry came to Jack County and bivouacked on the then-empty town square where the courthouse now stands. The United States Army established nearby Fort Richardson on Lost Creek in 1868. It was the northernmost Texas frontier fort built to protect pioneers against Indian raids, and the anchor of a line of fortifications that included Fort Griffin and Fort Concho. The presence of Fort Richardson just south of Jacksboro made the area safer for Anglo settlers and the population increased to several hundred. After the Warren Wagon Train Raid of May 18, 1871, in neighboring Young County, chiefs Satanta and Big Tree were taken to Jacksboro for trial and sentenced to be executed. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment for fear of further Indian uprisings. After the threat of Indian attacks diminished in the mid-1870s, the county's population rapidly increased. By 1880 the number of residents was 6,629, more than ten times what it had been only a decade before, and by 1890 the population had grown to 9,740. The Chicago, Rock Island, and Texas Railway, which reached Jacksboro in August 1898, brought additional growth and provided important access to markets outside the county. The Gulf, Texas, and Western Railroad reached Jacksboro in 1910.

Cattle ranching dominated the county's economy during its early years, with the first cattle drive north made in 1866. By 1890 the cattle population was 68,756. Large-scale farming began after the Civil War, dominated by corn, with 115,761 bushels harvested in 1880 and 663,490 bushels in 1900. Oats and wheat were introduced in the late 1800s, and by 1920 Jack County accounted for large grain production (1920 yields included 498,250 bushels of oats, 249,643 bushels of corn, and 351,819 bushels of wheat). Despite the growth of crop farming, livestock continued to play an important role in the county's economic life, with continued production of cattle, chicken, and eggs throughout the early decades of the twentieth century. The 1923 discovery of oil near Bryson (approximately 14 west of Jacksboro) attracted numerous oilfield workers, but the county population overall fell from its high of 11,817 in 1910 to 9,046 in 1930. Oil income helped some farmers to survive the Great Depression, but many others were forced to sell their land and equipment. Between 1940 and 1990 the number of residents fell from 10,206 to 6,981. The 2010 population was 9,028.

Early Jack County Courthouses

The present courthouse is the fourth such building to serve Jack County. Very little is known about the first two. The initial courthouse was established in 1858 in an existing building located on the west side of the Jacksboro town square. The simple wooden building was remodeled for its new community purpose at the cost of $800. The first jail was built in 1860. Records indicate that the county began to raise funds for a new courthouse in 1868. Completed on the public square in 1871, the sandstone courthouse was the site of the historic Satanta and Big Tree trial that same year, an event that still figures prominently in county lore.

By 1884, county officials began to discuss the need for a new courthouse, and the 1885 report of the grand jury to the Hon. B.F. Williams indicates that the current building was "totally unfit for the purpose for which it is used, that pile of rubbish in the center of our public square usually designated the Court House." The report cited unfavorable winter temperatures within the building, foundation failure, and cracking walls. Furthermore, the report asserted that the building was:
odious to the sight, uncomfortable to the occupants, a disgrace to our town and county, and reminds one more of a bat cave rather than a temple of justice. For one to be satisfied with the present structure would be him to equalize himself in the intellectual capacity with the detestable tumbler that still rolls the same ball, composed of the same matter, and in the same manner, as his illustrious ancestors did one thousand years ago."

In 1885, the county approved new courthouse plans by Dallas architect James E. Flanders and awarded a construction contract to Strain, Risley, and Winburn of Henrietta, Texas. The cornerstone ceremony on November 25 was a cause for local celebration, and upon the building's completion, the Jacksboro Gazette described it as "very handsomely designed and finished...built of the finest, best, and most beautiful blue limestone with trimmings." County Judge Thomas Horton described the courthouse in 1932 in his History of Jack County:

Our public buildings consist of a rock court house in the center of the Public Square, three stories high, sufficient capacity for all our court business, erected in 1885-6 by Risley Brothers, after the plans of a most skillful architect, still standing intact, an observatory extending three stories above the main building, surmounted by the Goddess of Liberty, looking benignly down on saint and sinner alike, surrounded by a yard of ample proportions, a lawn of Bermuda grass and flowers, rows of shade trees. Be it said to the credit of our judges and commissioners, always kept in first-class condition."

Despite the judge's assertion, the 1885 courthouse began showing evidence of structural problems by the turn of the century, and at that time the Commissioners Court had iron bars inserted into the walls in hopes of stabilizing it. The building continued to deteriorate, and by the 1930s, the plumbing was so bad that the smell of ammonia was almost overpowering to all who entered the courthouse.

1940 Jack County Courthouse

In March 1938, a group of county citizens were assigned the task of determining the need to replace the courthouse. Voters approved the issuance of a bond to fund the construction of a new building in September 1938, and the Commissioners Court immediately filed an application with the Federal Public Works Administration (PWA) for a $90,000 grant, to be matched by local bond funds of $110,000. The PWA was a comprehensive New Deal public works program that encouraged the employment of professionals and craftsmen in the planning and building of various public facilities. The agency administered the construction of various public works, such as public buildings, bridges, dams, and housing developments, and made loans to states and municipalities for similar projects. The PWA was established as a component of the Federal Works Agency (FWA) by Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1939, succeeding the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, which had been in place since 1933. The agency was abolished in July 1943.

The Jack County Commissioners Court granted the construction contract to Eckert-Fair Construction Co. of Dallas, Texas, and accepted a design by Voelcker & Dixon Architects of Wichita Falls, Texas, a firm responsible for many courthouses built during the period. In late December 1938, county offices were relocated to various buildings around the square, and demolition work commenced. A few hours before the walls of the courthouse were pulled down, a large group of citizens - many of whom lived in Jacksboro when the cornerstone was laid for the old structure- gathered at the site. The cornerstone was removed and its contents were examined and inventoried. The cornerstone still is displayed on the northeast corner of the square, beneath the old bell that hung in the tower. In a time when nothing that could be used again was thrown away, a substantial portion of the old building was used to construct a city hall on the north side of the square. An article in the Dallas Morning News noted that "Jacksboro was preparing this week to make two civic improvements grow where only one had been planned as workmen attacked the walls of the old Jack County courthouse in the process for clearing the site for a new building. It was found that the stone walls could be used again and the material will be salvaged to erect a municipal building." Construction of the new courthouse began in April 1939. County Judge John P. Simpson is largely credited with the caring and farsighted leadership that led to the construction of the new courthouse, although one of his daughters later related that there were many citizens angry with her father over the destruction of the 1885 courthouse. Judge Simpson died in 1939 before the courthouse was completed. Most of the construction workers were skilled artisans from other locales, but a number of the men who worked on the project were local laborers. Much of the work was not mechanized: the concrete, for example, was mixed on-site and carried primarily via large wheelbarrows to the pour location. One of the workmen involved in the construction of the upper floor jail related (in a c.1999 interview) that the steel cage was assembled using a cold rivet method, a slow and no doubt exhaustive process. A mechanical hoist lifted the stone veneer panels into place for the stone mason's final touches, a process that required two workers about an hour to prepare, lift, and finish the setting of each piece of stone. The largest and heaviest stone in the building was the lintel over the east entrance which was lifted and moved into place using a block and tackle. The stone supplier, Texas Quarries of Austin was swamped with orders and had difficulty making timely deliveries. The stone finally began arriving by rail in regular shipments beginning in August 1939. The courthouse was completed in the spring of 1940, opening with festivities that had been planned the previous year, including:

"a reproduction of the famous trial of Satanta and Big Tree, Indian chiefs who were condemned to death in one of the famous court sessions of pioneer Texas. The original trial took place on this site and Representative Fritz Lanham of Fort Worth has agreed to act as prosecutor in the mock trial, representing his father, the late Governor Lanham who, as prosecuting attorney, convicted the Indian leaders."

Upon the building's completion, the Dallas Morning News lauded the building, as expressing "the simple dignity of modern architecture," and identified it as "one of the outstanding buildings of the state."

The courthouse has served as the center of government for Jack County continuously since 1940 and stands as an excellent example of the federal, state, and local government funding partnerships that resulted in the construction of large-scale public buildings through the Great Depression, as well as supplying employment opportunities for skilled craftsmen and unskilled laborers through a period of economic hardship. As such, it is nominated to the National Register under Criterion A in the area of Government, at the local level of significance.

Architectural Significance of the Jack County Courthouse

The Jack County Courthouse meets National Register Criteria C in the area of Architecture as an outstanding example of Depression-era Classical Modern design and as the work of the Wichita Falls firm Voelcker & Dixon. The courthouse is a significant example of the Modern Classical style frequently utilized throughout Texas for civic buildings during the 1930s and 1940s. Buildings of this style are often categorized as "Art Deco" or "Art Moderne," terms derived from Paris's 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, which is commonly (but imprecisely) used to describe a diverse assortment of "modernistic" art and architectural styles of the 1920s and 1930s. The Jack County Courthouse's appearance is more accurately understood as a combination of fairly traditional design concepts with elements of the modern vocabulary associated with Art Deco and Moderne architecture. Richard Guy Wilson traces the origins of the Modern Classical style in the United States to Bertram Goodhue's National Academy of Sciences Building (1919-24) and Paul Cret's Folger Shakespeare Library (1928-1932), both in Washington, DC. Each building demonstrates a response to modernist ideals by retaining traditional monumental qualities, but abstracting historical styles and forms, and using simplified ornament in new design schemes. Both are classical in form and symmetry, but neither adheres to classical orders nor lavish ornament found in Beaux Arts design.

These buildings served as prototypes for governmental buildings designed and constructed through various New Deal programs. Modernistic appearance was commonly achieved by utilizing a geometric, stylized form of ornamentation in place of a more literal interpretation of historicist design. This approach was applied to formal design components, such as columns and cornices, as well as in limited areas of applied decoration, often in the form of low-relief sculptural carvings and flattened moldings. Buildings designed in this style achieved a novel and modern appearance, even when the interior plans and functions remained relatively unchanged from previous courthouse types. The style is representative of the progressivism that defined the era, in which erecting a courthouse with a modernistic design became a public assertion of the county's commitment to growth and improvement. Counties that built courthouses in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s were replacing buildings that had been constructed in the Victorian era, and the Modern Classical style was the perfect solution for a county that wanted to seem progressive and forward-thinking without completely abandoning the familiarity, solidity, and monumentalism of classical idioms. These attributes made the style an especially popular choice for public architecture in the 1930s.

Paul Cret's Folger Shakespeare Library is a definitive and influential expression of the style, wherein the building mass is a closed box with vertically banked windows separated by fluted piers, a basement, and an attic." The library combines the simplicity of modernism through the abandonment of capitals, traditional moldings, and strict adherence to classical orders, but retains the qualities of classicism with emphasis on form, balance, and symmetry. In philosophy as well as form, the library serves as a clear precedent for the Modern Classicism of the Jack County Courthouse. Both buildings feature an abstracted temple form placed on a podium set back from the street, as well as rectangular block massing, flat roofs, corner pavilions, deep voids for openings with stacked windows between pilasters, low relief ornament, and a U-shaped plan. The classical orders are reduced to fluted piers, and floor levels are indicated by spandrel panels. Certain details of the courthouse bear a striking resemblance to those in the library, such as the chamfered awnings over the entrances of both buildings. One notable difference is that the library does not have a central entrance, but two separate entrances, each located in a corner pavilion. This composition was determined by the dual functions of the building as a library and a theater requiring separate entries. The Jack County Courthouse retains the pavilions, even though they don't share the same function as those in the library: the courthouse has a central grand entrance, and the pavilions hold first-floor window bays. The Jack County Courthouse also shows the influence of Art Deco design in its fine details, with geometric and stylized floral patterns repeating in stringcourses and moldings inside and out.

The Jack County Courthouse is architecturally significant also for its attention to detail and richness of design that is not apparent from a distance, but only upon closer inspection. While the building's pale limestone color, block massing, and shallow relief sculpture emphasize its traditional Greek temple-derived composition, the courthouse features rich decorative elements and a mix of sumptuous materials (especially on the interior). The courthouse's representational sculpture is most appropriate for a governmental building of the period, with elements symbolizing the rule of law (books), the power of government (eagles and fasces), and the promotion of uniformly- applied justice (scales).

Architects Voelcker & Dixon

Architect Herbert Voelcker was born in New Braunfels, Texas in 1888. He attended Texas A&M College, earning an Architectural Engineering degree in 1909. He worked in offices in Waco, Fort Worth, and Austin, before taking positions in the Kansas City and Chicago offices of Lewis and Kitchen. After working in Louis Kahn's Detroit office for six months, he arrived in Wichita Falls in 1916, first working with E.S. Fields, and then establishing a partnership with J.L. Dixon in 1918. Biographical information regarding Dixon is limited, and the firm's archives have been scattered and lost.

Voelcker & Dixon was the premier architectural firm in Wichita Falls during the city's "golden age" after the discovery of the nearby Burkburnett Oil Field in 1918, which led to the establishment of nine refineries and 47 factories by 1920. The firm is credited with several major commercial buildings in downtown Wichita Falls, as well as public buildings, including the Wichita Fall Hospital (1926), Wichita Falls City Hall and Municipal Auditorium (1928, with Lang & Witchell), the U.S. Court House and Post Office (1935), Hardin Junior College (later Midwestern University) Administration Building (1936), and the Psychopathic Ward of the Wichita Falls State Psychopathic Hospital (1938). The variety of these large buildings in style, form, and function displays the firm's versatility, employing elements of various period styles with contemporary construction techniques (particularly steel and concrete forms, with stone and brick veneer). The refined eclectic but traditional architectural vocabulary of their 1920s buildings gave way to the modernistic mode by the end of the decade, when they began to produce designs for numerous north Texas county courthouses built with federal funding during the Great Depression.

Voelcker & Dixon designed ten county courthouses in north Texas between 1928 and 1940 (Herbert Voelcker also designed the 1955 Waller County Courthouse). Most of these followed the modern idiom, blending a mix of traditional and contemporary forms in the Modern Classical style. The 1928 Wilbarger County Courthouse is the most conservative of these, tied to Beaux-Arts tradition with a gray limestone façade featuring a piano nobile with a prominent 2-story attached Ionic colonnade supporting a molded entablature, and corner pavilions with pediment windows. The Callahan County Courthouse of 1929 is a much-simplified version of this form, composed of buff brick with low-profile brick pilasters and limited cast stone ornament. The firm's modernistic Cottle County Courthouse of 1930 is a departure from their previous work, with dramatic stepped massing and the incorporation of large-scale and highly stylized figurative sculpture into the building façade, demonstrating an understanding and appreciation of contemporary design elsewhere in the United States, in particular the 1924 design of the Nebraska State Capitol by Bertram Goodhue. Voelcker and Dixon's seven other Texas courthouses designed through 1940- including the Jack County Courthouse - are good examples of Modern Classicism, with varying degrees of low-relief sculpture.
The designs for these courthouses are much simpler than their earlier examples, with a tendency towards a single massive block with simple projecting pavilions or a single block broken by vertical windows.