DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Way out in Fayette County, the folks of Fayetteville had a notion in their heads and not much in their pockets. But that has never stopped a determined Texas town.
They went out, hat in hand, and raised six hundred dollars in private funds. Six hundred dollars. Then they went to the County Commissioners' Court and shook loose another two hundred in tax money.
Eight hundred dollars total, and with that they built themselves a Victorian precinct Courthouse in 1880. Now, a Victorian courthouse is a particular kind of ambition, all ornamentation and civic pride pressed into wood and brick. And they did it.
But here's the part that tells you everything about Fayetteville. When it came time to paint the thing, the money had run dry. So what did they do?
They threw a ball. A dance, right there in the new building, and the proceeds went straight to the painters. That is a community that knows how to finish what it started.
The story doesn't stop there, either. By 1887, they'd completed a two-cell calaboose upstairs. Think about that a moment.
A jail, sitting right on top of the courthouse, tidy and practical and probably quite persuasive to anyone standing before the judge below. Then in 1934, a ladies' club stepped up and donated the clock. The marker takes care to note that in early Texas, precinct courthouses were very rare.
This one, born from a dance and eight hundred dollars, is something worth pulling over for.
What the marker says
Fayetteville citizens raised $600.00 in private funds, received $200.00 in tax money from the County Commissioners' Court, and built this Victorian precinct Courthouse in 1880. A ball held in the new building netted funds for painting. The 2-cell calaboose upstairs was completed in 1887. A ladies' club donated the clock in 1934. In early Texas, precinct Courthouses were very rare. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977