DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to let this one breathe a little. May 9, 1893. Glasscock County had been formally organized for just over a month — barely enough time to sweep out the meeting room — and already the first county commissioner's court was signing bonds to put up a courthouse and a jail, all under one roof.
Now that right there tells you something about the priorities of West Texas in 1893. You need a place to hold court, and you need a place to hold the people who didn't listen. A man named L.
T. Noyes came out of Houston to build the thing, working alongside a plasterer by the name of William T. Lovell, and the two of them finished the job on February 12, 1894.
Two stories of stone. Ground floor: court sessions. Second floor: the jail.
Which — when you think about it — is a peculiar arrangement. Justice handed down below, and the consequences waiting directly above your head. The building even had a little architectural flair about it, subtle Classical influences, corner pilasters, a tall corbelled cornice.
This was not a county that intended to look shabby. Now, over time the use of that original structure shifted. The courts moved on, and the building became used only as a jail.
It stood in that role for a good long while. But by 1909, Glasscock County was ready to build something grander. Bonds were issued through the First State Bank of Garden City, and with that money the county brought in Mutual Construction Company, Inc., out of Louisville, Kentucky, and architects Edward C.
Hasford and Company, out of Dallas. The stone they used — three feet thick, mind you, three feet — came from a local ranch owned by a man named Steve Calverley. You don't put three-foot-thick walls up because you're nervous about the weather.
You put them up because you intend to still be standing when everyone else has made their excuses and gone home. The new courthouse rose as a two-and-a-half story Classical Revival structure. Colossal Doric columns holding up an open pediment.
A horizontal belt course running clean along the second-floor window sills. It was completed on August 27, 1910, and it has been in continuous use every single day since. The original courthouse and jail — that scrappy two-story stone building that started it all — was eventually replaced by a new jail in 1980.
The old one had done its job. Glasscock County started signing bonds a month after it officially existed. Finished a courthouse before the year was out.
Built a grander one sixteen years later, in stone three feet thick. Some counties take their time. Glasscock County was never that kind of county.
What the marker says
On May 9, 1893, a little over one month from the date of Glasscock County's formal organization, the first county commissioner's court issued bonds to erect a combination courthouse/jail building. L. T. Noyes of Houston, with the assistance of plasterer William T. Lovell, completed the structure on February 12, 1894. Originally, the ground floor of the building was used for court sessions and the second floor used as the jail. The 2-story stone building, later used only as a jail, features subtle Classical influences, including corner pilasters and a tall corbelled cornice. County bonds issued through the First State Bank of Garden City in 1909 were used to employ Mutual Construction Company, Inc. of Louisville, Kentucky, and architects Edward C. Hasford & Co., of Dallas, to build a new courthouse. The 2 1/2 story Classical Revival structure, constructed of 3-foot thick native stone from a local ranch owned by Steve Calverley, was completed on August 27, 1910. It features colossal Doric columns supporting its open pediment and a horizontal belt course which follows its 2nd floor window sills. The current Glasscock County Courthouse has been in continuous use since 1910. The original courthouse/jail structure was replaced by a new jail in 1980. Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks - 1962