Texas Courthouse Trails : North Texas (East of Dallas) Courthouses with David and Tanner

The Route of the Day: Quitman, Sulphur Springs, Mt Vernon, Cooper, Paris, Bonham, Greenville, Emory, Kaufman

The journey to these North Texas counties began at 3am on Tuesday, July 9^th. Don’t worry I did get 6 hours of sleep. I decided to take my Silky terrier, Tanner, with me because, first, I didn’t want to leave him in the house all day and part of the night alone and my friend David was going with us and he would remain in the car while I went inside the courthouses. Dogs are like children and you shouldn’t leave them in a locked hot car. Tanner and I took a short walk and he did his business. We had the car packed and we were off to pick up David in Houston. David was ready when we arrived and we were off and on I-45 at 4am headed to Quitman, Texas, our first stop.

Our route took us up to Huntsville and turning north on SH19 through Lovelady, Crockett, Palestine (David’s old home town), and Tyler. We stopped at Mineola at the McDonalds for rest, food and gas. We drove further north and arrived at Quitman around 8:45.

The Wood County courthouse is a Classical Revival style built in 1925 of red brick. It is a large three story building trimmed in white. We finished the photos and we were off to Sulphur Springs and the Hopkins County courthouse. This courthouse is probably the best one of the day.

The Hopkins County courthouse was built in 1894-1895 and is a J. Riely Gordon designed Romanesque Revival. It is towering structure with a central tower. It is built from pink granite and trimmed in orange sandstone. It has been completely restored and in use today as a functioning courthouse. The interior is as beautiful as the exterior. What impressed me the most was the massive Veteran's Memorial built on the courthouse grounds just to the south of the main entrance.