Old Red Courthouse

Old Red is the name by which Dallas knows its former county courthouse, a red sandstone building in the Richardsonian Romanesque style completed in 1892.¹ It served as the county courthouse until a newer building nearby replaced it in 1966, and after a phased restoration it was rededicated in 2007 as the home of the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture.¹²

Background

Dallas County was organized in 1846, and Dallas was chosen as its county seat in August 1850. John Neely Bryan, whom the Handbook of Texas calls the founder of Dallas, gave the land for the courthouse.³ The county’s first courthouse at Dallas was a log cabin, built while the town was still the temporary seat.⁴ That pattern was common: Texas counties usually began their government in a residence or a temporary log building, and many have built three or more courthouses since they were organized.⁵ Photographs, maps, diaries and newspapers on the county’s past are among the archives of the society in the Dallas Historical Society entry.⁶

Design

The building was designed by Max A. Orlopp Jr. of Orlopp and Kusener, a firm based in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was built of red sandstone with marble accents.¹ It belongs to a period at the close of the nineteenth century when many prospering Texas counties replaced their earlier courthouses with large and picturesque buildings.⁵ Romanesque Revival is one of the three broad styles the Handbook of Texas identifies among the state’s historic county courthouses. It describes Romanesque Revival courthouses of the period by their polychromy and round arched openings, and names the Fayette County Courthouse at La Grange (1890 to 1891) as the type.⁵ That courthouse was the work of the architect profiled in the entry on James Riely Gordon; the broader building program is covered in the overview of Texas county courthouses.⁵

The Dallas building shows those traits in its round arched windows, its contrast of red sandstone above a rough gray stone base, and a tall central clock tower between round corner turrets, as seen in a 2014 photograph by Carol M. Highsmith.¹ The original clock tower was taken down early in the twentieth century; the one standing today is a replica built during the restoration.²

Years as the courthouse

For about seventy four years, from 1892 to 1966, the building served as the Dallas County Courthouse.¹ Texas county courthouses provide space for the district and county courts and for the commissioners’ court, which conducts county business, and for officers such as the county clerk, the district clerk, the tax assessor and the sheriff.⁵ Its historic lobby is an open space four stories high, built around a cast iron staircase.² How the town’s blocks filled in around the building can be followed in the fire insurance maps discussed in an essay on Sanborn maps.

Restoration and museum use

The building was restored through the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program of the Texas Historical Commission.⁷ Dallas County received a planning grant in the program’s second round in 2001 and a construction grant in its fourth round in 2004, which paid for a replica of the original clock tower.² The work, carried out in phases over several years, combined exterior restoration with interior renovation to expand and improve the museum.²

Besides the rebuilt tower, the project restored one of the original courtrooms and the spacious fourth floor library, and rebuilt the grand cast iron staircase using elements of the original. The walls and ceilings of the large historic courtrooms were returned to their original colors, and those rooms now hold the museum’s exhibits.² The courthouse was rededicated on May 15, 2007, and the commission lists it among the county courthouses restored under the program, with 1892 as its original completion date.²⁷

The building’s survival and second use are taken up in the essay Old Red and What Dallas Kept. The state program that funded the work has its own entry on the Texas Historical Commission, and further subjects are gathered in the reference index.

References

1. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, The former Dallas County Courthouse, fondly known locally as the “Old Red Courthouse,” is now a museum in downtown Dallas, Texas ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Texas Historical Commission, Dallas County Courthouse ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association, Bryan, John Neely ↩

4. Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association, Dallas County ↩

5. Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association, County Courthouses ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. Dallas Historical Society, Dallas Historical Society home page ↩

7. Texas Historical Commission, Restored Historic Courthouses ↩ ↩²