Courthouse Prints/Calendars · About Bill Morgan · Reviews · Courthouse Poll · Odds & Ends · Contact/Order · Links · Home
	Here are the complete results of Bill Morgan’s “Old Friends: Great Texas Courthouses” poll that saw 88 buildings win votes, with an unbelievable 16 of them voted No. 1 on one or more of the 59 ballots. Participants in the poll were people who contacted Morgan to tell him that they had traveled to all 254 Texas counties for the specific purpose of visiting and photographing each one. STARTING AS AN AFTERTHOUGHT, The Texas Courthouse Poll LEFT VOTERS DEEP IN THOUGHT By BILL MORGAN Author-Illustrator of “Old Friends: Great Texas Courthouses” Confession time: The first Texas courthouse poll in history was an afterthought. Not long after the first edition of my five-year Old Friends: Great Texas Courthouses calendar series was published in October 1994 I began getting phone calls and letters from people who had been to the state’s 254 counties to check our all of our halls of justice. By the time I began working on the fifth and final edition, my list of courthouse cohorts had grown to 98. And not all that surprising, I judged, since no group of buildings in the state has as much history wrapped in them and as much architecture wrapped around them. Through the five years of calendars, the list grew and we kept in touch, exchanging phone calls and letters. We recounted our courthouse adventures, shared our thoughts on the buildings—and almost invariably ended up challenging one another to name our favorites. Then the idea hit me—why not close out the series with a poll on which buildings the “experts” rated as la crème de la crème? Courthouses seemed to be the stuff of which surveys are made. A quick bit of research would reveal polls taken of architects, county officials, lawyers, judges, scholars, historical societies. Somebody. Anybody? Nope, nobody. Or if any group conducted such a poll, it was done under the cover of darkness. I couldn't find a hint of a similar survey in the history of Texas. Then one reason became apparent: The only true “experts”—folks with the credentials to serve as judges—were those who had traveled around the state expressly to see its courthouses. It's unlikely that business would take anyone to every courthouse in the state, and even if such a job exists, the traveler was probably more pre-occupied with the records inside than with the architecture outside. The true experts were the 98 folks who made the trips, plus of course any other courthouse lovers who hadn't contacted me. Before the calendar series there was no record of people who had seen all the Texas courthouses. At least four books were published on the subject between 1938 and 1993, all before the first Old Friends calendar. However, two of those interesting, well-researched projects were one-time publications. The other two were by the late June Welch, 13 years apart (1971 and 1984), so there was no extended dialogue between authors and readers. The five continuous years of calendars triggered the opportunity for on-going communications between the readers and me that wasn't there in the first four publications. So in the spring of 1998 I sent ballots to my 98 fellow Texas courthouse aficionados, the most legitimate experts I could imagine. They were asked to rank their favorite courthouses from first through 20th. Fifty-nine of them responded. So 59 votes sounds a bit light? That's about 60% of the identified “qualified” voters at election time, and how often do we get that kind of turnout in other statewide races? Voters were bound only by the same code baseball umpires follow—“call ‘em like you see ‘em.” Maybe a few voters knew architecture, maybe not. I didn't ask them. There were no requests to explain a vote, although each panelist was offered the opportunity to comment. It was simply serious courthouse peepers giving their opinions. Did I miss eligible voters? No question—within four months of my last calendar I heard from about 30 more who had seen them all. And the number kept growing after the Old Friends coffee-table book was published in late 1999. Would input from these newly found voters have changed the results? If my 58 panelists' experience is any indicator, you bet things would be changed. Those who commented on their votes told similar stories: They agonized over decisions and almost unanimously noted that if they were to vote again later, they would probably change their ballots. Disclaimer time: I'd like to say here that I didn't vote because I didn't think it ethical for the only election judge to take part. That's what I'd like to say, but the real reason is that history offers plenty of lessons about killing the messenger: I would have enough bullets to dodge just for calling this election. Actually, I heard no sour grapes, though I'm sure there was plenty of private second-guessing about the vote. Remember that it was all in fun. You still say that your favorite courthouse got short-changed? Yeah, mine did, too. The Texas Courthouse Poll Each first-place vote counted for 20 points, each second place vote 19, each third place 18 and so on through one point for 20th place. Rank County County Seat Year Built 1st Place Votes Total Votes Total Points 1 Ellis Waxahachie 1896 2 45 731 2 Coryell Gatesville 1897 2 43 635 3 Tarrant Fort Worth 1895 9 43 594 4 Wise Decatur 1896 8 39 521 5 Old Denton Denton 1896 4 30 472 6 Gonzales Gonzales 1894 6 29 411 7 Shackelford Albany 1883 0 30 403 8 Caldwell Lockhart 1894 0 33 395 9 Old Victoria Victoria 1892 2 33 376 10 Bexar San Antonio 1892 2 30 372 11 Parker Weatherford 1885 4 30 366 12 Hood Granbury 1890 0 28 364 13 McLennan Waco 1901 4 27 362 14 Old Dallas Dallas 1892 4 28 356 15 Hill Hillsboro 1890 4 26 339 16 (Tie) Concho Paint Rock 1883 3 26 278 Grimes Anderson 1893 2 26 278 18 Atascosa Jourdanton 1914 0 18 251 19 Presidio Marfa 1886 0 16 210 20 Erath Stephenville 1892 0 18 186 21 Hopkins Sulphur Springs 1894 0 14 184 22 DeWitt Cuero 1897 0 18 178 23 Lampasas Lampasas 1883 0 18 166 24 Newton Newton 1902 0 18 160 25 Shelby Center 1885 1 15 157 26 Lavaca Hallettsville 1897 0 18 152 27 Old Harrison Marshall 1900 0 8 144 28 Cass Linden 1861 1 10 142 29 Tom Green San Angelo 1928 0 10 128 30 Fort Bend Richmond 1908 0 10 120 31 Lee Giddings 1897 0 12 117 32 (Tie) Old Nueces Corpus Christi 1914 0 10 104 Fayette LaGrange 1891 0 14 104 34 Trinity Groveton 1914 0 12 98 35 Comal New Braunfels 1898 0 16 78 (Tie) Bandera Bandera 1890 0 9 70 38 Hudspeth Sierra Blanca 1919 0 7 68 39 McCulloch Brady 1899 0 8 67 40 Crockett Ozona 1902 0 8 63 41 (Tie) Anderson Palestine 1914 0 6 62 Midland Midland 1930 0 6 62 43 Loving Mentone 1935 0 4 53 44 (Tie) Llano Llano 1892 0 4 44 Gillespie Fredericksburg 1892 0 4 44 Mason Mason 1909 0 4 44 47 Red River Clarksville 1884 0 7 43 48 Colorado Columbus 1891 1 5 42 49 (Tie) Bell Belton 1884 0 4 39 Hartley Channing 1906 0 5 39 Jefferson Beaumont 1932 0 6 39 Kenedy Sarita 1921 0 5 39 Others Receiving Votes in Order of Ranking: 53, Franklin; 54, tie between Deaf Smith and Navarro; 56, Goliad; 57, tie between El Paso, Jones and Moore; 60, tie between Hunt and Somervell; 62, tie among Donley, Parmer and Real; 65, Bosque and new Webb; 67, LaSalle and new Nueces; 69, tie among Frio, Blanco, San Saba and old Webb; 73, Stephens; 74, Kinney; 75, Dallam; 76, tie among Brown, old Irion and Motley; 79, Clay, old Harris and old Maverick; 82, Kendall; 83, Terrell; 84, Fisher; 85, tie between Lynn and Matagorda; 87, Rains; 88, Montague. (Points do not total maximum 12,390 for 59 ballots because some voters listed fewer than the full ballot of 20 buildings.)
	Courthouse Prints/Calendars · About Bill Morgan · Reviews · Courthouse Poll · Odds & Ends · Contact/Order · Links · Home