2006 Terry Winner - Red River County Courthouse, Clarksville, TX

Other Awards: Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (1966), National Register of Historic Places (1978), State Archeological Landmark (1981), Historic American Buildings Survey #TX-3456. Historic Significance: This is the third courthouse to serve Red River County. Built in 1885, with only one major addition in 1910, it is one of the ten oldest active county courthouses in the state. It is the only known, intact building designed by Texas architect William H. Wilson of Dallas. Stylistically, the building is Second Empire, with Baroque and Italianate elements. Three stories tall and stretching 110 feet high, it is principally constructed of pale yellow Honey Grove limestone with a wide metal cornice, mansard clock tower, and bell cupola. Elegant exterior detailing and the use of plain, but solid materials on the interior, mark it as a classic example of public architecture in the Victorian era. It is the principal landmark in the county and a favorite among fans of Texas courthouses. It has served as the seat of justice for county and district courts for more than 120 years. Presently, the building holds the courtroom used by the 6th & 102nd State District Courts, the district and county judges’ offices, a grand jury room, juror’s room, parole office, district court records, and county and district attorney’s offices. Other county offices were spun off to satellite locations to relieve crowding. History of the Structure: Anglos arrived in what is now Red River County around 1815. Because the Red and Sulphur Rivers drain to the Mississippi, settlers thought they were in the Louisiana Purchase but the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 placed them in Spanish Texas. On the eve of the Texas Revolution, Ben Milam, agent for the Red River Colony, partially cleared the Red River. His steamboat The Alps was the first to navigate above Shreveport. Jim Clark donated land for the new county seat at Clarksville. A brick courthouse replaced the original frame structure in 1852-53. Clarksville became known as a learned community with important cultural institutions. Though the Civil War and Reconstruction disordered its economy, the building of the Texas & Pacific Railroad in the mid 1870s renewed the county’s prospects. In 1881, the Texas Legislature provoked a building spree by allowing counties to sell bonds for courthouse construction. Civic leaders in Red River County joined many around the state in replacing their antebellum courthouse with a Victorian showplace to proclaim the modernity of their community. The new courthouse rose two blocks north of the original square in a residential area. William H. Wilson of Dallas designed Red River’s new courthouse, and Livingston & Burns, a contracting firm from Monroe, Louisiana, built it in 1884-85. The final cost of $55,423 exceeded projections by $15,000. However, when one figures that the county got 115 years of continuous use with only one major addition in 1910, the building cost taxpayers just $482 a year. The most impressive feature of the courthouse (besides its great height) was probably the tower clock, emplaced on May 27, 1885. The Howard Clock & Watch Co. of Boston made this massive object, with copper gears, dials more than eight feet wide, and a bell weighing 2,000 pounds. It took a janitor thirty minutes a day to wind. Clarksville seemed to have excellent growth prospects in 1885. The city had seven churches, three schools, two banks, two mills, a convent, a newspaper, and a railroad. The soil’s fertility and its fitness for cotton lulled residents into believing that crop would guarantee their future, so they made little effort to diversify. Unfortunately, farmers began moving west to blackland prairie counties, and Clarksville itself lost population relative to Dallas, Paris, and Texarkana. In 1920, the county’s population reached a high of 35,829, but the farm crisis of the 1920s and the general Depression of the 1930s devastated the county. Many moved away. By 2000, the county’s population fell to 14,314, a 60 percent decline since 1920. Conversely, the state’s population grew 347 percent in that period. Clarksville’s population in 2000 was virtually the same as in 1960, while the state’s population grew 118 percent from 1960 to 2000. Through these changes of fortune and size, the county courthouse continued to symbolize the dreams of past generations who thought their community would fare much better. Some people, less than sentimental, considered the courthouse an albatross. Too expensive to demolish, they advised county commissioners to let it fall down and move government offices to a cast-off WalMart building. Others clung to the courthouse as a reminder of their ancestors’ achievements, with the hope that the county’s former glory may yet return. The county’s motto is: “Restoring Our Future.” Restoration: The Red River County courthouse was one of the first to be restored via the Texas Historical Commission’s Courthouse Preservation Program. Gov. George W. Bush encouraged the legislature to create the program. Its funding formula is a state match of 85 percent of the restoration costs to a 15 percent share from county or private funds. State monies cover structural repairs and restorations, but not equipment, furnishings, landscaping, alternative office spaces, or new decorative elements. Sixth District Judge Jim Lovett encouraged the county to apply for the money. County Judge Powell Peek supported the idea. The $4 million price tag meant the county had to supply $600,000 towards construction expenses and more for related costs. The state allowed the county to apply upkeep and equipment purchases towards its matching share, as well as an unused Texas Department of Transportation grant, but Red River still had to come up with more than half-a-million dollars. For a town of 3,900 in a county whose per capita income was 27 percent less than the national median, this seemed like an impossible undertaking. However, Judge Lovett flatly stated they would never get a better deal. If the county didn’t find $609,000, the state would not grant the $4 million, and the county would be forced to repair or replace the courthouse on its own. Civic leaders formed committees to teach the public about the need for the project. Telecom entrepreneur Larry Townes & family pledged $250,000 in memory of Glenn Townes, but only if the Citizens’ Restoration Committee could match it. His generosity shamed those who were nay-saying the project. With 40 percent pledged, the Citizens’ Restoration Committee had the leverage it needed to approach other donors. Townes also gave the county the use of a vacant office building for the whole four years of the project, rent-free, and even paid taxes on it while the county government was there. Peek remarked, “With it being used by the county, there really were no taxes due, but Townes didn’t want the county to be burdened.” The Martha, David, & Bagby Lennox Foundation contributed $125,000. Joan Sims Vaughn; her son, James Vaughn, Jr.; and their friend Jim Clark, VI, direct descendant and namesake of the town’s founder, composed a Recognition Committee within the Citizens’ Restoration Committee, and they more-or-less raised the rest. It became a truly grass-roots effort, and the Recognition Committee promised that anyone who gave even a dollar would be listed on bronze plaques in the hall of the building. Charitable foundations such as the Bass Foundation, Brown Foundation, Dodge Jones Foundation, and George Sunkle Foundation gave to the effort, as well as the Red River County Historical Society. Then, the Recognition Committee ransacked Christmas card lists, alumni lists, and absentee landowner lists. They got donations from class reunions, elementary schools, businesses, tourists, and many private individuals, black and white. The project drew those together who were willing to help; conversely, it showed that some had little sense of heritage or community spirit. “They didn’t give” became a sad phrase, showing that not everyone shared the preservationists’ vision. Undeterred, about 430 people, businesses, and organizations participated in the campaign, with the final tally of money raised (from 2000 to 2004) reaching $708,000. Early on, the county raised enough money to meet the Texas Historical Commission’s Feb. 15, 2000, deadline, and on May 4, 2000, it gave the county $3,472,614 to proceed with the restoration. Red River was one of only 19 counties in Texas to win a grant in Round One of the applications, and one of only 3 to do so in East Texas. The other Round One East Texas grants were a small emergency gift to Rains County and a complete restoration prize to Hopkins County (winner of the 2005 Terry Award).

The project consultant for the restoration was Craig Melde of Architexas. Harrison, Walker & Harper, LP, of Paris, Texas, served as general contractor, and Steven Dunn supervised the workers over a period of three years. Subcontractors included Jaster-Quintanilla Structural Engineering, Phoenix I Restoration, Hull Historical Restoration, U. S. Heritage Group, Restoration Associates of San Antonio, Source Design Studio of Houston, and Circle K Painting of Paris. One of the most able workmen was Larry Dinger, a metalworker who stayed on site for 1 ½ years making exact replicas of deteriorated cornices, the cupola, and metal shingles. Contractors replaced 5 of the 8 large finials at the roofline, rebuilt the chimneys according to historic photos, removed dropped ceilings, and renewed the interior finishes. Replacement stone was obtained from the original quarry, which reopened for the occasion. Damaged flooring was replaced with period wood from demolished houses. Former county clerk Mary Hausler returned decorative pieces that had been removed over the years, including cast iron railings and ceiling pendants. Judge Peek made prisoners available to do heavy, unskilled labor. The most difficult task of restoration turned out to be the replacement of the cupola (110 feet in the air). Its wooden framing was 90 percent rotted, and it held a bell that could not be dismounted. With the bell, the cupola weighed 7,000 pounds. It stood atop a clock tower, whose base began about 50 feet above ground directly over the courtroom. Eventually, contractors put spreader bars inside the cupola and wrapped the outside in slings to keep it from collapsing as a crane lifted it off with the bell inside. The original cupola is now a gazebo on the courthouse grounds. Other changes included ramps to the basement and a handicapped-accessible elevator to access the first and second floors. Structural repairs ended in 2003, and county officials returned to their offices in 2004. We applaud the people of Red River County, their contractors, the Texas Historical Commission, and state legislature for funding a restoration of this magnitude and seeing it through to a successful completion.