Texas Courthouses Good Bad And Beautiful

"Texas Courthouses - Good Bad and Beautiful" showcases all 254 Texas county courthouses. Some are good, a few are bad but most are beautiful. Covering all 266,807 square miles of Texas, reading about the history of each town square and its courthouse is an adventure in arm-chair travel. From original log cabins to ornate palaces, "Texas Courthouses - Good Bad and Beautiful" will entertain the reader on road trips into history.

A county courthouse stands not only as the center of government, but also as the center of civic pride. Some with stately towers and arched doors or windows, some with high brick chimneys and mansard roofs, some in modern concrete and glass, the 254 courthouses of Texas provide an invitation to public life, a testament to the ideal of justice, and an introduction to period architecture. It is no wonder, then, that many tourists each year visit these edifices. This new edition of a classic, indispensable, full-color guide—a true collector’s item for Texas history fans—will help travelers choose which courthouses they want to add to their trips and view them knowledgeably. For each county a color photograph pictures the courthouse and an account sketches the sequence of the seats of government, the location and style of the current building, and tidbits of fascinating lore about county and county seat names and history. Courthouses and the “squares” around many of them offer a bonanza for history buffs, antique collectors, genealogists, architecture enthusiasts, and photographers. Many of them house or are near local history museums, and many display historical markers that introduce the area to visitors. Especially in many smaller county seats, the courthouse square offers a genre scene of a special moment in Texas’ life. Included in this updated edition are the latest views of some of Texas’ most historic and architecturally significant courthouses, including those restored under the Texas Historical Commission’s Historic Courthouse Preservation Program. For all those who plan their travels to see courthouses, and all those who in their travels for other reasons enjoy detours into the heritage and pride of a people, this beautiful and informative book opens the way.

This book celebrates the Lone Star State's unigue heritage through paintings and histories of 71 of it's landmark courthouses and counties.

Texas has 254 counties, and every one has its own county courthouse. Many of these buildings are historic, beautiful, and a fitting tribute to their community! Some of them are...none of those. Native Texan Kevin Miller spent a decade criss-crossing this great state to visit every single one, and now you can take the epic road trip yourself from the comfort of your couch. Use this book to experience the best county courthouses that Texas has to offer-and the worst.

A County Courthouse stands not only as the center of government but as the center of civic pride. Some with stately towers and arched doors or windows, some with high brick chimneys and Mansard roofs, some in modern concrete and glass, the 254 courthouses of Texas stand as an invitation to public life, a testament to the ideal of justice, and an introduction to period architecture. It is no wonder, then, that many tourists each year visit these edifices. This full-color guide - a true collector's item for Texas history fans - will help travelers choose which ones they want to add to their trips and to view them knowledgeably. For each county a color photograph pictures the courthouse and an account sketches the sequence of the seats of government, the location and style of the current building, and tidbits of fascinating lore about county and county seat names and history. Courthouses and the "squares" around many of them offer a bonanza for history buffs, antique collectors, genealogists, architecture enthusiasts, and photographers. Many of them house or are near local history museums, and many display historical markers that introduce the area to visitors. Especially in many smaller county seats, the courthouse square offers a genre scene of some moment in Texas' life. For all those who travel to see courthouses, and all those who in their travels for other reasons enjoy detours into the heritage and pride of a people, this beautiful and informative book opens the way.

The county courthouse has long held a central place on the Texas landscape—literally, as the center of the town in which it is located, and figuratively, as the symbol of governmental authority. As a county's most important public building, the courthouse makes an architectural statement about a community's prosperity and aspirations—or the lack of them. Thus, a study of county courthouses tells a compelling story about how society's relationships with public buildings and government have radically changed over the course of time, as well as how architectural tastes have evolved through the decades. A first of its kind, The Courthouses of Central Texas offers an in-depth, comparative architectural survey of fifty county courthouses, which serve as a representative sample of larger trends at play throughout the rest of the state. Each courthouse is represented by a description, with information about date(s) of construction and architects, along with a historical photograph, a site plan of its orientation and courthouse square, and two- and sometimes three-dimensional drawings of its facade with modifications over time. Side-by-side drawings and plans also facilitate comparisons between courthouses. These consistently scaled and formatted architectural drawings, which Brantley Hightower spent years creating, allow for direct comparisons in ways never before possible. He also explains the courthouses' formal development by placing them in their historical and social context, which illuminates the power and importance of these structures in the history of Texas, as well as their enduring relevance today.

Victorian Texas Courthouses have been called the "architectural treasures of the state". Although they have a number of characteristics in common, such as the use of wrought iron, stained-glass, towers, turrets, and gingerbread, the architecture of the Victorian Era was not just one style but a collection of many styles. Coinciding with these architectural styles in Texas was the "golden age" of courthouse design and construction. The Victorian styles fit perfectly with the public's idea of what a grand "temple of justice" should say about the county's people and their values. These styles were ideal in that they could illustrate in stone and glass the power of government and law in society. Unfortunately, most of these great Victorian buildings are gone, but thankfully through vintage picture post cards we can still enjoy their architecture. This book is an attempt at the architectural preservation of Victorian Texas courthouses through the use of over one hundred vintage picture post cards.

With its dignified courthouse set among shade trees and lawns dotted with monuments to prominent citizens and fallen veterans, the courthouse square remains the civic center in a majority of the county seats of Texas. Yet the squares themselves vary in form and layout, reflecting the different town-planning traditions that settlers brought from Europe, Mexico, and the United States. In fact, one way to trace settlement patterns and ethnic dispersion in Texas is by mapping the different types of courthouse squares. This book offers the first complete inventory of Texas courthouse squares, drawn from extensive archival research and site visits to 139 of the 254 county seats. Robert Veselka classifies every existing plan by type and origin, including patterns and variants not previously identified. He also explores the social and symbolic functions of these plans as he discusses the historical and modern uses of the squares. He draws interesting new conclusions about why the courthouse square remains the hub of commercial and civic activity in the smaller county seats, when it has lost its prominence in others.