DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, if you ever want to know how a Texas county throws a party, you could do a lot worse than taking notes from Colorado County in the summer of 1890. July the seventh, to be exact.
That's the day the building of the Colorado County Courthouse began, and these folks did not ease into it quietly. About three thousand people showed up. Three thousand.
For a cornerstone. That tells you something right there about what this courthouse meant to the community. They kicked things off with a barbecue in a grove north of town, the kind of gathering where the smell of smoke and meat hangs in the air and nobody's in any particular hurry.
But the afternoon had bigger plans. When the time came, that crowd formed up into a procession and marched to the Courthouse Square, led by a local marching band. Picture three thousand people moving through town with a band out front, and you start to understand that this was not just a construction milestone.
This was a statement. At the square, members of Caledonia Lodge No. 68, A. F. and A.
M., laid the cornerstone with full Masonic ceremonies. Then, the whole crowd turned right back around and processed to the grove again. Because why not?
The party wasn't finished. And when evening came, they carried the celebration indoors, to a grand ball held at the Stafford Opera House. The new courthouse was completed in February 1891.
They laid one cornerstone, and they wrung an entire day out of it, morning to midnight. Colorado County, they don't do anything halfway.
What the marker says
The building of the Colorado County Courthouse began with a public celebration July 7, 1890. About 3,000 people attended a barbecue in a grove north of town. They later marched to the Courthouse Square in a procession led by a local marching band. Members of Caledonia Lodge No. 68, A. F. & A. M. laid the cornerstone with Masonic ceremonies. Following the ceremony the crowd gathered together for a return procession to the grove. Later that evening a grand ball was held at the Stafford Opera House. The new Courthouse was completed in February 1891. (1990)