Panhandle Courthouses: Day 1 July 13th, 2015

Bosque County Courthouse, Meridan, Texas from SH36

For the past four years I've been visiting, photographing and documenting Texas county courthouses. So far, I've been to 209 of 254 counties.  The final 45 were in the Texas Panhandle.  Except for the western counties I've been able to do this on day trips from Houston, leaving early in the morning and returning late at night. The Panhandle is just too far from Houston and there are too many to do this. I decided to make one trip and visit all 45 in one trip. My plan was to leave early in the day from Abilene and travel west and north.  Since my wife, Mary Alice, bowed out of this trip, accompanying me on this trip was my good friend and photographer, David Billingsley.  He has been with me on most of these day trips. He really enjoys seeing the Texas back roads and country.  We left Houston on July 12th, Sunday and drove to Abilene via SH36.  Passing one of my all time favorite courthouses in Meridan, we stopped to look at the Bosque County courthouse.  We arrived in Abilene late in the day, checked into the hotel and ordered a pizza.

The next morning we were northbound on US83 headed to Aspermont, Texas county seat for Stonewall County.  These Panhandle courthouses are normally found on the main highway or the intersection of two main highways.  The county seats average 35 miles from each other.  If you look at the map of the the counties in the Panhandle you'll see they are all rectangular or square, exactly how the Texas Constitution orders the size of counties.  They were designed to allow someone traveling by horseback to go to the county seat, conduct business or sit on a jury and be able to go home the same day, by horseback.

Main Street in Aspermont, Texas

The courthouse in Aspermont is not especially eye opening.  Most of the Panhandle courthouses are rather unimpressive architecturally being built in the "Modern" style.  What I've found interesting are the things on the courthouse grounds and square.  The Stonewall County courthouse has a statue of Lady Justice that was once atop an earlier courthouse.

The 1891 Rayner courthouse is still standing on private land.  It is approximately 7 miles east of Aspermont on US380. We drove out there but could not find it.  I found a dirt road at the marked distance but the "keep out" signs discouraged our venture.
The old courthouse once served as a ranch headquarters.  From the photos I've found on the internet it's in a dilapidated state.

By the way, US83 runs north and south and has been called the backbone of the US.

Old Rayner Courthouse (off internet)

Our next courthouse was in the town of Jayton, county seat of Kent County.The present courthouse is not pictured because it is rather unimpressive.   We came through the town of Clairemont and saw some old buildings and decided to stop.  Upon looking at the buildings and reading the guide book, I learned that it was the 1893 Kent County courthouse and jail.  It was built of sandstone.  The second floor and tower have been removed.

1893 Kent Co Courthouse

1893 Kent Co Jail

When I see old abandoned buildings like this, I wonder who, when, what happened, what were their dreams?

We left Clairemont and headed east on US380 for Post, county seat of Garza County.The town of Post, Texas is named for cereal magnet C. W. Post. Post had come to Texas and invested in real estate.  In 1906, Post invested some of his substantial earnings from his food products manufacturing into Texas real estate, purchasing a massive 225,000 acre tract in Garza and Lynn Counties.

Post platted a new town which he called Post City.  Shade trees were planted, farm parcels laid out and a hotel, school, churches and a department store for the new Garza County seat.  He is honored with a statue in front of the Garza County courthouse.

From Post we turned north of US84 to Lubbock, Texas, home of Texas Tech University and home town of the great Buddy Holly.  The Lubbock County courthouse is located in downtown Lubbock on Buddy Holly Ave.

Lubbock County is only courthouse with a statue of a bail of cotton on its grounds.  I guess cotton is pretty important to the economy of the county.      

500 lb of Cotton on the courthouse grounds














We found SH-125 and headed west to the next town, Levelland, county seat of Hockley County.  The courthouse is a 1928 Classical Revival, stone and concrete building.  The county is named for George W. Hockley, commander of artillery at the Battle of San Jacinto.

From the number of jack pumps that we saw along the highway, I was looking for a monument to the "jack pump" on the courthouse square.






We continued west to Morton, Texas, county seat for Cochran County.  The courthouse is a "modern" design and not worth putting in the blog.  I did find a wooden Indian on the courthouse grounds that was pretty interesting.

At the base of the wooden Indian it says Texas' Last Frontier Cochran County.  The story of Cochran County is the tale of Texas' Last Frontier.  When It was created in 1876, it was the last county in Texas to be established by the legislature. Thus, the phrase "Texas Last Frontier" was attached to it.  Spanish Conquistadors passed through the area in the 16th Century and Native American Comanches roamed the vast prairie until the last 1870s.  But it wasn't until around 1898 that the expansive grasslands caught the interest of cattlemen looking for new range to graze their herds.  By then, the last Comanche raiding parties had been subdued and the land was ripe for settlement.(from www.texaslastfrontier.com)
We turned north and headed toward Littlefield, Texas, county seat for Lamb County, denim capital of the world.  The courthouse is perhaps one of the ugliest in Texas.  Here's the photo.  It has a "red door entrance".  I'm not sure why.

Lamb Co Courthouse

We continued north on US84 to one of my favorite named towns, Muleshoe, Texas, county seat of Bailey County.

Bailey Co Courthouse

Downtown Muleshoe, Texas

We continued north on US84 to the NM border town of Farwell, Texas, county seat of Parmer County.

Parmer County Courthouse

I took some photos of the courthouse and we were off again. Farwell is surrounded by rail.  Trains are constantly going and coming.  We caught this one.  Across the track the highway to Amarillo is a right turn. I missed it and we entered New Mexico briefly.  I turned around and got on the right road, US60 to Hereford, Texas, county seat of Deaf Smith County.

The most interesting thing about Deaf Smith County is the man for whom it is named. Erastus "Deaf" Smith was an American frontiersman noted for his part in the Texas Revolution and the Army of the Republic of Texas.  He fought at the Grass Fight and the Battle of San Jacinto where he destroyed Vince's bridge, thus blocking any escape routes from the site of the battle.  After the war, Deaf Smith, led a company of Texas Rangers.

One of the largest feed lots in the world.

Hereford boldly proclaims it is the beef capital of the WORLD.  After seeing all the feedlots along the highway, I'm a believer.  There's no shortage of beef here.






We turned south on US385 and headed toward Dimmit, Texas, county seat of Castro County.  On the way and still in Deaf Smith County we found more feedlots.

From Dimmit County we continued south on SH194 to Plainview, county seat of Hale County.

Ranching is the main driver of the economy in this portion of the Panhandle as indicated by the longhorn statue on the courthouse grounds.  Our journey continued took us through some back roads to Silverton, county seat of Briscoe County.  

The Briscoe County courthouse is a 1922 Classical Revival style building.  The county was named after Andrew Briscoe, Texas patriot and veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto.

Courthouse and historic jail

The F-86 was in front of a VFW hall

From Silverton we drove west again to Tulia, county seat for Swisher County.

The original 1909 courthouse was a Renaissance Revival designed by Elmer Withers.  It was constructed of red brick with sandstone columns and pediments. In 1962, this courthouse was completely remodeled and the old courthouse was completely encased in a modern brick veneer shell. This beautiful old courthouse is gone.

1909 Swisher Co Courthouse

If you had a choice of restoring the old courthouse or building a new one, what would you do?

Our last county and courthouse for the day was in Canyon, county seat of Randall County.

The Randall County courthouse was built in 1908 in the Texas Renaissance style. It has been restored. The restoration of the Randall County Courthouse is the result of Randall County’s participation in the Texas Historical Commission’s courthouse program. The THC oversees the program, which provides partial matching grants to Texas counties for the restoration of their historic county courthouses.  It was the best and last for the day.

That my friends is the first day.  Mary Alice found us a hotel in Canyon, the Buffalo Inn via hotels.com.  Not fancy but served our purpose.  We would be on the road again the morning.