Cooke County Courthouse

Duane's take

The official marker for the Cooke County Courthouse is what I'm going on here, and it's quite a story to tell. Now, settlement of the area we know today as Cooke County began in late 1845. Not long after, in 1848, the State Legislature created the county and named it for William G.

Cooke. And that name carries some weight. William G.

Cooke was the Republic of Texas Quartermaster General, and he was there at the Battle of San Jacinto. That's the kind of man a county gets named for in Texas. Land for a county seat was donated by Mary E.

Clark, and the new town that rose on that land was called Gainesville, in honor of United States Army General Edmund Pendleton Gaines. Now here is where the courthouse story begins, and it is a story that has been told, and retold, and rebuilt, more than once. The first courthouse on this site went up in 1850.

A small log structure. Modest, practical, the kind of thing a young county puts together when it's still finding its feet. That one was replaced in 1853 by a one-story frame building.

And that frame building, well, it met the fate that has claimed many a wooden structure in this part of the world. Fire took it. So they built again.

The third courthouse was a two-story limestone structure, completed in 1880. Now limestone, you'd think, would be a safer bet. And for nearly three decades it served Cooke County well.

But in 1909, fire came calling again. That limestone courthouse was destroyed. Three courthouses on the same ground, and two of them lost to flame.

You might start to wonder about that particular patch of Texas soil. But Cooke County was not done. In 1910, construction began on the courthouse that stands today.

The design came from the Dallas architectural firm of Lang and Witchell. Beaux Arts style, which is a way of saying they did not skimp on ambition. The Gainesville firm of Garrett and Collins served as supervising architects, and the contractor was M.

P. Kelly, also of Gainesville. So this was very much a local effort to build something that would last.

And last it has. The building is brick and limestone, and it features terra cotta ornamentation, eagle brackets, and a copper-clad dome. That dome is something to look at.

And in 1920, clocks were added to it, placed there as a memorial to World War I. Four courthouses on the same site. Log, then frame, then limestone, then this.

Two lost to fire, one replaced by its successor, and one still standing with eagle brackets and a copper dome watching over North Texas. Some ground just keeps earning its place.

What the marker says

Settlement of the area now known as Cooke County began in late 1845. The county was created by the State Legislature in 1848 and named for William G. Cooke, Republic of Texas Quartermaster General and a participant in the Battle of San Jacinto. Land for a county seat was donated by Mary E. Clark, and the new town was Gainesville in honor of U.S. Army General Edmund Pendleton Gaines. There have been four courthouses located on this site. The first, a small log structure, was erected in 1850. It was replaced in 1853 by a one-story frame building which was later destroyed by fire. The third courthouse, a two-story limestone structure, was completed in 1880 and destroyed by fire in 1909. Designed by the Dallas architectural firm of Lang and Witchell, construction of this Beaux Arts style courthouse began in 1910. The Gainesville firm of Garrett and Collins served as supervising architects, and M. P. Kelly of Gainesville was the contractor. The impressive brick and limestone building features terra cotta ornamentation, eagle brackets, and a copper-clad dome. Clocks were added to the dome in 1920 as a World War I memorial. The courthouse is an important North Texas landmark. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988.