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Hood County
Courthouse
©2007 Bill Morgan. All
rights reserved
HOOD COUNTY - The most frustrating part of doing
five courthouse calendars and a courthouse book in the late 1990s--the only
frustrating part, now that I think about it--was that there's no record of what
went into the decision to build a certain courthouse.
You wade through
the musty old record books, kicking up little puffs of dust as you turn crinkly
pages, and at long last there it is: "Commissioners accepted the plans for a
new courthouse submitted by Oscar Ruffini, construction cost not to exceed
$38,000. Vote: 4 aye, 1 nay." Not much for color, those old county records;
meanwhile, you know there was a near-riot over the decision..
I used
to sit on a little park bench in front of the shop on the northwest corner of
the Granbury square to sketch that towering old courthouse. I invariably ended
up wondering what kind of hell was raised when the Hood and other landmark
courthouses were being decided. We know about a few of the rhubarbs--the
supposed bribing of commissioners to give James Riely Gordon the Denton job,
Ellis County commissioners losing their jobs because of the outrageous $175,000
price tag, etc. We have to believe that politics being politics, whether it's
Caesar getting shivs in the ribs or Kerry getting fast boats in the broadside,
controversy swirled around every vote in such a permanent matter as a new
courthouse.
Official meeting minutes just don't traffic in that sort
of reporting. Most of the interesting details of the infighting over courthouse
location and construction come to us in conversation ("Remember Grandpa's story
about the guy who stole wheelbarrows when they were building the courthouse?").
Now and then, an old newspaper story tells about the mindsets of the times.
Consider the following two reviews:
Bell County's recently renovated
1884 courthouse at Belton drew this rave review: "Its massive architectural
entrance impresses the visitor with the county's unusual wealth and the class
of her people." Ninety miles south and nine years later, Caldwell County's
courthouse opened at Lockhart to the following judgment: "…a useless
ornament for the gratification of a few."
So I sit there looking at
the Hood County courthouse and try to send it a telepathic message: "Come on,
tell me who got teed off about what when you were being built?"
Buy A Print
11x17 prints on sturdy stock
of the Hood County Courthouse are available on my ordering page. The cost is
$20 for the first print and $16 for additional prints of this, or any of the
other 11 courthouses, purchased at the same time. (Add $3 for
shipping) |
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