Courthouses of Hardin County

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Courthouses of Hardin County. Now settle in, because this is a story about buildings that refused to stay put, stone hauled across half of Texas, and a safe that a whole courthouse got built around. Hardin County was created in 1858, and from the very start, its official home had a way of meeting dramatic ends.

The first official Hardin County building was probably a two-story log structure, and I say probably because here's the thing about that building: it burned about 1886, and it took the early county records right along with it in the conflagration. Gone. Just like that.

So when they sat down to try again in 1887, you can imagine they were thinking a little harder about permanence. Architect Frank Smith of Beaumont drew up a two-story frame structure, and local contractor W. B.

Pedigo built it right there in Kountze. Now here is the detail that gets people. Before they raised those walls, they set a safe down on the ground, and then they built the walls of the courthouse around it.

Around it. That safe wasn't going anywhere, and neither, they hoped, was the courthouse. It stood until 1905, when it was replaced, and J.

B. Hooks moved the old building right across the street, where it became the J. B.

Hooks Abstract Company. The old courthouse didn't burn, didn't crumble. It just changed jobs.

But the courthouse that went up in 1905, now that is something worth describing slowly. Andrew P. Bryan designed it, and M.

J. Lewman and Company built it. They went big.

A three-story colonial-style sandstone building, four twenty-four-foot two-story columns front and back, sixteen smaller columns supporting the dome. That dome was built in the tradition of the nation's capitol and the Texas State Capitol. And the materials, they came from everywhere.

Native stone from the Pecos area of West Texas. Salmon-colored brick imported from the Hydraulic Press Brick Company of St. Louis.

Columns and bases crafted by the Bedford Stone Company. In 1918, a carbide lighting system was installed inside. That building served Hardin County all the way until 1958, when a modern facility planned by Dickson-Dickson and Associates and built by Lumbeck Construction Company took over.

And then, in 1960, the 1905 edifice was destroyed. All that stone from Pecos, all that salmon brick from St. Louis, those sixteen smaller columns and that capitol dome, gone.

By the end of the twentieth century, the 1958 courthouse was still in service. And the 1887 building, the one Frank Smith designed and W. B.

Pedigo built with a safe at its heart, it was still standing too, near the courthouse square, home now to law offices. Two centuries of county business, and something always manages to survive.

What the marker says

Hardin County was created in 1858. The first official Hardin County building was probably a two-story log building that burned about 1886. Early county records were destroyed in the conflagration. In 1887, architect Frank Smith of Beaumont designed a two-story frame structure built in Kountze by local contractor W. B. Pedigo. A safe was positioned inside the structure and the walls were built around it. The building was replaced in 1905. J. B. Hooks moved the old courthouse across the street to become the J. B. Hooks Abstract Company. A new masonry courthouse was erected in 1905. It was designed by Andrew P. Bryan and built by M. J. Lewman and Company. Domed in the tradition of the nation's capitol and the Texas State Capitol, the edifice was built of native stone from the Pecos area of West Texas. Salmon-colored brick was imported from the Hydraulic Press Brick Company of St. Louis, and the columns and bases were crafted by Bedford Stone Company. A carbide lighting system was installed in 1918. A three-story colonial-style sandstone building was erected with four 24-foot two-story columns front and back and 16 smaller columns supporting the dome. This building served until 1958. A modern facility was planned by Dickson-Dickson and Associates and built by Lumbeck Construction Company in 1958. The 1905 edifice was destroyed in 1960. At the end of the 20th century, the 1958 courthouse was still in service and the 1887 building continued to stand, now the home of law offices, near the courthouse square. (2000)