Robertson County Courthouse BW
by Joan Carroll
Title
Robertson County Courthouse BW
Artist
Joan Carroll
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photograph
Description
Like most of the other county courthouses in Texas that I have visited, I was totally surprised to arrive in a town of about 1500 and find such an elaborate courthouse for Robertson County! It was a sleepy midday when I visited so the limestone was bright and white in the sun. Also, like most of the other courthouses in Texas, this is not the county's first. Erected in 1882 at a cost of $30,000, this white limestone building is the fourth to serve as Robertson County Courthouse. In 1879 the county seat had been moved to Morgan but because Texas already had a post office named Morgan, the town was renamed Franklin, for pioneer Will Franklin. Plans for a courthouse were begun that year and in 1881 the construction was started under F.E. Ruiffini, Architect. The style of the courthouse is called the Second Empire style. The original design was a the three-story stone building having "corner pavilions with Mansard roofs and a clock tower dome with cresting and a pediment over the south side entrance. The building was decorated with a cornice, corner quoins, dormers, bulls-eye windows, segmented arched lintels with keystones over the windows and a small balcony over the south entrance." A remodeling that began in December of 1923 replaced the buildings original roof with a flat one that was surrounded with �Alamo� parapets and the interior was gutted and reconstructed. Annexes were built to the north and west sides of the courthouse in the 1970s and the old jail was also expanded. Starting in 2009, the annexes were demolished and a new rear annex, matching the stone and style of the 1882 courthouse, was completed in 2011. A restoration of the 1882 courthouse�s original roof was completed in 2014 along with the restoration of the 1882 jail.
FEATURED PHOTO. Historical Buildings of the World-25 group, 9/10/14
FEATURED PHOTO, Landscape and Landmark Photography group, 9/9/14
Uploaded
September 8th, 2014
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Viewed 4,371 Times - Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 04/21/2024 at 2:38 AM
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