DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission put on the marker for the Cottle County Courthouse — so every word of this goes back to that stone. Now, before we get to the building itself, we ought to start with the name on the county, because that name carries some weight. The Texas Legislature created Cottle County in 1876, and they named it for George Washington Cottle — a man who died defending the Alamo forty years before that.
Forty years. So every time somebody filed a deed or paid a tax or got married in this county, they were doing it in the name of an Alamo defender. That's the kind of foundation you build on in Texas.
For a good while, this part of the state was ranch country threading itself together by stage routes — the OX, the SMS, the Matador — big outfits connected by dirt roads to towns in other counties, because Cottle County itself wasn't even organized yet. That changed in late 1891, when settlers got together, signed a petition, and said: we're ready. An election in January of 1892 made it official, drew the boundaries, and the people picked a geographically central spot for the county seat.
They named it Paducah — after Paducah, Kentucky, hometown of a settler by the name of Richard Potts. A man brings his hometown's name a thousand miles west, and it sticks. That's how it works out here.
Now, county business had to start somewhere, so they conducted it right in people's homes while they got their act together. By May of 1892 — just months after the county organized — they had a permanent courthouse up. Small, one story, frame construction.
Nothing fancy. But it was theirs. That modest little building lasted about two and a half years before Cottle County decided it had outgrown it.
November 1894 brought a two-story brick replacement, designed by a man named J. A. White, complete with a prominent bell tower standing up over the square like the county was announcing itself to the surrounding prairie.
And for a good stretch of years, that was Cottle County's face to the world. Then the economy started flourishing, as the marker puts it, and by the spring of 1929 the commissioners were feeling their ambitions. April 1929, they awarded a contract for a brand-new courthouse to architect C.
H. Leinbach. Done deal, right?
Four days later — four days — they rescinded it. Just like that. What happened next was they put $150,000 in courthouse bonds to a vote, and the measure split the county right down the middle.
Outside Paducah, it failed. Inside Paducah, it passed. And overall?
It carried. The city pulled the county across the finish line. With the bonds approved, the county turned to the Wichita Falls firm of Voelcker and Dixon — designers of eleven courthouses across the state of Texas.
These were not men who did ordinary work. In the fall of 1929, they broke ground right here on something that people are still stopping to stare at. What they built was a four-story brick and terra cotta structure in the Art Deco style — one of the premier examples in all of Texas, the marker says, and when you lay eyes on it, you understand why.
Stepped blocks project out from a central mass. Carved eagles. Stylized figures of justice and liberty.
Inscriptions cut above each of the four entries. The whole thing looms over the square the way something ought to loom when a county has been waiting since 1876 to build it right. People have compared the design to an Egyptian temple.
An Egyptian temple, standing in Paducah, Texas, named for a Kentucky town, in a county named for a man who fell at the Alamo. If that's not a Texas story, I don't know what is. The Texas Historical Commission made it a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2005 — and some landmarks, friend, earn that title every single time you look at them.
What the marker says
The Texas Legislature created Cottle County in 1876 and named it for George Washington Cottle, who died defending the Alamo forty years earlier. Stage routes connected early ranches, including the OX, SMS, and Matador, to established towns in other counties. In late 1891, settlers petitioned for the county to be organized, and an election in January 1892 formalized Cottle County's boundaries. A geographically central site was selected as county seat and named for Paducah, Kentucky, hometown of settler Richard Potts. County business was conducted in existing homes until a permanent courthouse, a small one-story frame building, was finished in May 1892. That was replaced in November 1894 with a two-story brick buildling, with a prominent bell tower, designed by J. A. White. The Cottle County economy flourished, and in April 1929, county commissioners awarded a contract for a new courthouse to architect C. H. Leinbach. Four days later, they rescinded that order and the citizens voted on $150,000 in courthouse bonds, a measure that failed outside Paducah but passed in the city and carried overall. The county gave a new contract to the Wichita Falls firm of Voelcker and Dixon, designers of 11 courthouses across Texas. In the fall of 1929, work began here on one of the premier Art Deco style courthouses in the state, a four-story brick and terra cotta building that looms over the square. Stepped blocks project from a central mass, with carved eagles, stylized figures of justice and liberty, and inscriptions above each of four entries. The unusual design, which has drawn comparison to an Egyptian temple, makes it one of the most distinctive public buildings in the region. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2005