DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's the one doing the talking here — I'm just Duane, passing it along. Now, you want to talk about a piece of ground that had its destiny written before the ink was even dry on the deed, Houston, Texas is going to give you a story worth pulling over for. It starts in 1836, when two brothers — Augustus C. and John K.
Allen — founded Houston. And when they laid out their new town, they didn't just pick this spot at random. They designated it.
Called it the Courthouse Square. Right here, from the very beginning, this ground was meant for something. One year later, in 1837, Houston became the county seat — first for Harrisburg County, later for Harris County — and they put up a two-story pine log courthouse to make it official.
Pine logs. You think about how far that corner of Texas was going to travel from there. What stands here now is the fifth Harris County Courthouse at this location.
The fifth. Four came before it, right on this same square the Allen brothers staked out. This one was built in 1909 and 1910, and the man behind the design was Charles Erwin Barglebaugh, an associate in the Dallas architectural firm of Lang and Witchell.
He came in with classical revival styling, and he did not hold back. That domed roof. Ornate central projections — the proper architectural word is risalits — flanked by Corinthian columns.
Elaborate ornamentation worked in terra cotta, limestone, and masonry. And the building materials themselves tell a story of reach and ambition: pink Texas granite and light brown St. Louis brick.
This wasn't a courthouse that whispered. It announced. Now, while all that grandeur was going up, somebody still had to run the county.
So during construction, the county offices packed up and moved into a nearby theater. Government by curtain call, apparently. The building served Harris County for decades, until 1952, when a new courthouse went up east of the square.
Shortly after that, this one was remodeled and put to work as the Harris County Civil Courts building. The square the Allen brothers designated in 1836 was still doing its job. Today, the Harris County Courthouse of 1910 stands as what the marker calls a dramatic example of civic architecture — and as a symbol of Houston's dynamic growth in the early part of the twentieth century.
Two brothers pointed at a patch of Texas ground and said, this is the place. Nearly two centuries later, that ground is still proving them right.
What the marker says
When brothers Augustus C. and John K. Allen founded Houston in 1836, they designated this site as the Courthouse Square. In 1837 Huston became the Harrisburg (later Harris) County Seat, and a two-story pine log courthouse was constructed here. The present structure, which was built in 1909-10, served as the fifth Harris County Courthouse at this location. Designed by Charles Erwin Barglebaugh, an associate in the prominent Dallas architectural firm of Lang and Witchell, it features classical revival styling. Outstanding details include the domed roof, ornate central projections, or risalits, with Corinthian columns, and elaborate ornamentation of terra cotta, limestone, and masonry. Building materials include pink Texas granite and light brown St. Louis brick. During construction of the Courthouse, county offices were housed in a nearby theater. Shortly after a new courthouse was built east of the square in 1952, this structure was remodeled for use as the Harris County Civil Courts building. Today the Harris County Courthouse of 1910 serves as a dramatic example of civic architecture and as a symbol of Houston's dynamic growth in the early part of the twentieth century. (1984)