I got a chance to add some photos of another Texas courthouse to my collection, this one in Upshur County in Northeast Texas. The building itself is WPA Moderne style and fairly prosaic.
To smarten things up, the County Commissioners evidently decided that an artillery piece pointed in the general direction of Arkansas would add a level of reassurance to the whole affair.
But later, either when a local auto dealer was elected County Judge or to simplify giving visitors directions, a giant flag suitable for a mobile home sales lot was added. The US flag is at least three times the size of the Texas flag in the background.
Another view of that 1955-vintage 155mm M1A2 Howitzer produced by the Rock Island Arsenal.
That whole courthouse square looked almost too good. Here's one of the buildings on the South side of the square, most likely already in place when the present courthouse was built in the 1930s and another with an advertisement that really must be too good to be real:
I'll take " old courthouses" for $1000, Alex
There are four antebellum courthouses still in use in Louisiana. I believe one is used as auxiliary offices.
The grounds of the Upshur County Courthouse also had another monument aside from the howitzer, one of the more unusual monuments I've seen to date, a bell that a local citizen used to ring to help enforce the laws about business closing times!
Robert Hill, post: 421911, member: 378 wrote: I'll take " old courthouses" for $1000, Alex
There are four antebellum courthouses still in use in Louisiana. I believe one is used as auxiliary offices.
They all seem rather, well, small. Is the idea that so few people actually owned property in the Parish that relatively few documents regarding the disposition of that property ever needed to be recorded? Also, WHERE ARE THE HOWITZERS? Presumably they would be pointed North in Loosiana, right?
Yes, they are rather small except for the third one shown n Lafourche Parish. Basically rural farming (sugar) or timber producing land.
Here is the original GLO office for the Greensburg District in Louisiana that dispensed the land of the West Florida Republic in Louisiana.I've been there and it is ridiculously small.
One small room with a fireplace and two mini Doric columns. When I was there it was being used as a local Veteran's office. The original jail still exists there also. It is even smaller but it is brick 2 story structure.
Tomorrow, our 8th grader is going on a school field trip down in bayou country.
He'll be going to the Vacherie plantation houses. The one where H H Richardson was born and also Oak Alley that was designed by Joseph Pilie, patriarch of the surveyor family.
They are also going to a funky folk art sculpture garden way down the bayou in Chauvin, La.
Robert Hill, post: 421919, member: 378 wrote:
He'll be going to the Vacherie plantation houses. The one where H H Richardson was born and also Oak Alley that was designed by Joseph Pilie, patriarch of the surveyor family.
That's interesting to know that Henry Hobson Richardson was born in Loosiana. Basically, it gave him his ticket to study in Franch. Per Wikipedia:
"Richardson was born at the Priestley Plantation in St. James Parish, Louisiana, and spent part of his childhood in New Orleans, where his family lived on Julia Row in a red brick house designed by the architect Alexander T. Wood. He was the great-grandson of inventor and philosopher Joseph Priestley, who is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen."
"Richardson went on to study at Harvard College and Tulane University. Initially, he was interested in civil engineering, but shifted to architecture, which led him to go to Paris in 1860 to attend the famed Ìäcole des Beaux Arts in the atelier of Louis-Jules AndrÌ©. He was only the second U.S. citizen to attend the Ìäcole's architectural divisionÛÓRichard Morris Hunt was the firstÛÓand the school was to play an increasingly important role in training Americans in the following decades."
He didn't finish his training there, as family backing failed due to the U.S. Civil War"
Kent,
while in Gilmer, hope you found the local Pittsburg Hot Link palace known as Doc's Hot Links located 1 block east of the square 1 1/2 blocks south on the East side of Hwy 155.
They are the standard and originated west of Gilmer in Pittsburg.
I find them best covered in chili gravy, onions and cheese and topped off with their hot sauce.
You may want to get them with jalapenos.
bon appitet
Kent McMillan, post: 421922, member: 3 wrote: That's interesting to know that Henry Hobson Richardson was born in Loosiana. Basically, it gave him his ticket to study in Franch. Per Wikipedia:
"Richardson was born at the Priestley Plantation in St. James Parish, Louisiana, and spent part of his childhood in New Orleans, where his family lived on Julia Row in a red brick house designed by the architect Alexander T. Wood.
Interesting about the Julia St Row connection. In the 70s&80s that was the heart of skid row in New Orleans.
Flop and rooming houses, transients, vagrants and off shore workers etc.
Very nice buildings. They use that block to film some of Miller's Crossing way back when.
Skid row started to disappear in the 80s. Can't nversions to art galleries, restaurants, condos, museums and hotels came like a tsunami of preservation and development.
http://architecture.tulane.edu/preservation-project/place/308
A Harris, post: 421977, member: 81 wrote: Kent,
while in Gilmer, hope you found the local Pittsburg Hot Link palace known as Doc's Hot Links located 1 block east of the square 1 1/2 blocks south on the East side of Hwy 155.
They are the standard and originated west of Gilmer in Pittsburg.
I find them best covered in chili gravy, onions and cheese and topped off with their hot sauce.
You may want to get them with jalapenos.
bon appitet
I drove past Doc's, but took note of it. I didn't stop in, but Bubba's Fat Burger and James Brown Barbecue wasn't too bad. BTW the records in Upshur County are in very good shape. The little counties like Upshur without the flood of land transactions typical of the urban counties can be a breeze to research in unless the clerk has made a mess, which definitely isn't the case in Upshur.
Kent McMillan, post: 421922, member: 3 wrote: That's interesting to know that Henry Hobson Richardson was born in Loosiana. Basically, it gave him his ticket to study in Franch. Per Wikipedia:
"Richardson was born at the Priestley Plantation in St. James Parish, Louisiana, and spent part of his childhood in New Orleans, where his family lived on Julia Row in a red brick house designed by the architect Alexander T. Wood. He was the great-grandson of inventor and philosopher Joseph Priestley, who is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen."
"Richardson went on to study at Harvard College and Tulane University. Initially, he was interested in civil engineering, but shifted to architecture, which led him to go to Paris in 1860 to attend the famed Ìäcole des Beaux Arts in the atelier of Louis-Jules AndrÌ©. He was only the second U.S. citizen to attend the Ìäcole's architectural divisionÛÓRichard Morris Hunt was the firstÛÓand the school was to play an increasingly important role in training Americans in the following decades."
He didn't finish his training there, as family backing failed due to the U.S. Civil War"
Interesting, our courthouse was also designed by H H Richardson:
And an older picture:
Another interesting thing about this courthouse is that the peak of the tower is the origin of coordinates for a series of flood maps produced in 1909. These maps are just along the rivers, but they show a massive amount of railroad tracks that existed that are no longer there.
And here's one last one from Upshur County that shows a bit more of the context of the courthouse building:
Upshur County has a nice square and courthouse indeed. If you are still in East Texas detour by the Harrison County courthouse (old one not the new one), although the new one isnt anywhere new anymore. The old courthouse is a sight to see but unfortunately the square doesn't have that nostalgia feel anymore
TXSurveyor, post: 422101, member: 6719 wrote: Upshur County has a nice square and courthouse indeed. If you are still in East Texas detour by the Harrison County courthouse (old one not the new one), although the new one isnt anywhere new anymore. The old courthouse is a sight to see but unfortunately the square doesn't have that nostalgia feel anymore
Actually, tomorrow will take me to Camp County, which appears from Google Street View to have one of the uglier courthouses, a close contender for the top honors that Kerr County presently holds.
John Hamilton, post: 422035, member: 640 wrote: Interesting, our courthouse was also designed by H H Richardson:
I think it's fair to describe H.H. Richardson's buildings as generally possessing a muscularity that was previously not found in American architecture. Without really thinking in depth about Richardson's sources, I think I'd say that he was fusing the designs of various palaces of merchant princes in Renaissance Italy with the vertical reach of high Gothic buildings in Northern Europe, i.e. providing the avericious and grasping spirit of the age with a sort of ecumenical disguise.
Basically, Richardson's buildings were products of the Gilded Age (of unfettered capitalism).
That insurance company building on the corner was the original site of a bank that has since relocated.
The first Camp County Courthouse was a site to see with observation deck, bell tower and clock.
The present Camp County Courthouse was built during the depression era and is quite cramped when there are 6 or more in the records office.
The best thing is that John McNutt is down the road from there and can answer most any surveying question about the area you can throw at him.
And, the headquaters of Pittsburg Hot Links at 136 W Marshall St, Pittsburg, TX.
The presence of the Pilgrim Chicken headquarters can be seen all around town. A must see is the Bo Pilgrim Palace
A Harris, post: 422150, member: 81 wrote: That insurance company building on the corner was the original site of a bank that has since relocated.
The first Camp County Courthouse was a site to see with observation deck, bell tower and clock.
The present Camp County Courthouse was built during the depression era and is quite cramped when there are 6 or more in the records office.
The best thing is that John McNutt is down the road from there and can answer most any surveying question about the area you can throw at him.
And, the headquaters of Pittsburg Hot Links at 136 W Marshall St, Pittsburg, TX.
The presence of the Pilgrim Chicken headquarters can be seen all around town. A must see is the Bo Pilgrim Palace
Yes, I found Pittsburg Hot Links. It obviously does a good business, but for someone accustomed to Texas barbecue I'd have to describe their food as an acquired taste.Downtown Pittsburg is cute enough though.
This is what the Camp County Courthouse looks like in real life. The antenna mast on top of the building adds a certain Buck Rogers touch.
The haphazard siting of the building is what makes it a serious contender in comparison to Kerr County's own.
. 
Kent McMillan, post: 422333, member: 3 wrote: The haphazard siting of the building is what makes it a serious contender in comparison to Kerr County's own.
It looks like a correctional facility...
