Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 4, Number 2, Fall, 1992 Page: 4
40 p. ; 26 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Old Red
Celebrating the Centennial of a Dallas Landmark
By Ron EmrichT HE DALLAS COUNTY Courthouse, fondly
known for generations as "Old Red," is celebrating
its centenary this year. Despite decades of
at best benign neglect and at worst ill-conceived
alteration, the old courthouse has remained as a
symbol of government and an icon for the citizens of
the area.
Texas courthouses have been described as
"the capitols of the world that mattered."' Government
in Washington and Austin was remote. The
voting, the recording of births and deaths, the small
civil matters that affected most people in an essentially
rural culture all occurred at or near the county
courthouse.
When John Neely Bryan and his surveyor,
Cobo Smith, laid out the town plat of Dallas in 1844,
the public square was laid out first. Bryan still
owned the property and continued to raise crops on
the square. After the Texas Legislature designated
Dallas as the temporary seat of county government
in 1846, a 10' x 10' log cabin was built on a corner of
the square, so as to allow Bryan to continue raising
corn on the rest of the property. This first Dallas
courthouse burned down in 1848 and was not replaced
until 1850, after Dallas survived a challenge
by the towns of Hord's Ridge and Cedar Springs to
be the permanent county seat. A second log structure,
bigger this time at 16' x 32', was also located on
the public square, which Bryan and his wife deeded
to the County.
By 1856, when the City of Dallas was incorporated,
the county needed new and more perma4nent quarters that would reflect the ambitions of a
fledgling frontier town, so a two-story brick building
was erected on the square, surrounded by a grove
of trees and "a plank fence ... to keep wandering
livestock from eating the saplings and the courthouse
lawn."2 This third courthouse suffered extensive
damage in the fire of 1860, but, rebuilt, it
continued to serve the community until 1871, when
it was sold (presumably for its materials) for $465.
Dallas County's fourth courthouse boasted
walls formed by "hard granite" quarried east of the
city and was topped by a dome and a roof balcony
from which citizens could gaze out over their growing
city and county. This building burned, too, in
February 1880, although the granite walls remained
standing and were incorporated into the next courthouse,
which opened later the same year. Costing
$75,000, a large sum for 1880, the new structure was
sheathed in native granite. A square tower into
which was built a four-faced clock loomed over the
booming downtown; the timepiece quickly became
a beloved landmark, visible from every direction.
In 1890, when this courthouse, too, burned
down, Dallas acquired the distinction of having had
more courthouses than any other city in Texas. The
Commissioners' Court wasted little time in planning
for a new building. After a brief flirtation with
the thought of moving the courthouse "uptown," the
Court decided to remain on Bryan's public square
near the river. Bids were opened in July 1890, and
the contract was awarded to Robert L. James. Estimated
to cost $276,000, the sixth courthouse was
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Dallas Historical Society. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 4, Number 2, Fall, 1992, periodical, 1992; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth35117/m1/6/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Historical Society.