DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official Henderson County Courthouse marker has to say — so let the record show where this comes from. Now, every courthouse has a story, but the one sitting in Athens, Texas took its sweet time getting there. And honestly, that's part of what makes it worth telling.
It started in 1846, when the Texas Legislature created Henderson County. Simple enough. But simple is rarely how things go in Texas.
For the next several years, the county commissioners were wandering — meeting in private homes, gathering in the communities of Buffalo and Centerville, doing the business of government wherever they could find a chair and a flat surface. These were men trying to run a county without a courthouse, which is a little like trying to fry eggs without a pan. Then a fellow named Samuel Huffer did some figuring and determined where the true center of the county actually was — out on the Thomas Parmer survey.
And once you know where the center is, well, now you've got somewhere to aim. Matthew Cartwright secured 160 acres for a new courthouse site, and by 1850 the county seat had picked up and moved to Athens. Six years later, Athens was incorporated proper.
So. They needed a courthouse. County commissioners hired a man named John Loop to build one.
Log construction. It served as the court building for eleven years, which in frontier Texas counted as practically ancient. But log courthouses don't last forever, and in 1860, a man named William Warenskjold began construction on something more ambitious — a two-story frame courthouse.
Two stories. That was a statement. That was Henderson County saying it had arrived.
And then 1885 came along, and that courthouse burned. Just — gone. When the smoke cleared, only the district and county clerk buildings were still standing.
You can almost picture the commissioners staring at the ashes, hats in hand, thinking: well. Here we go again. C.H.
Hawn and Company built what came next. That courthouse held on until 1913, which brings us to June of that year — and this is where things finally come together in a lasting way. The commissioners court approved the bid of L.R.
Wright and Company to build a new courthouse on the square, working from a design by L.L. Thurmon and Company out of Dallas. They approved it in June.
They accepted the finished building in January 1914. And what they accepted was something worth keeping. The Henderson County Courthouse rises three floors above a basement, topped with a central dome that you can see from a good distance coming into Athens.
Four entries, each with three bays, pedimented, supported by Tuscan columns. The plan is cross-axial — a central block with single bays projecting from each corner — which sounds technical until you stand in front of it and realize the building has a kind of symmetry that just feels right. Classical Revival, they call the design, and that name earns its keep here.
Step inside and you'll find marble stairways and marble wainscoting, original detailing that has held on through the decades. The courthouse was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 2002. Since it opened, the square around it has been the site of the Old Fiddlers contest and other events that tend to draw a county together.
Today, memorials and tributes to Henderson County veterans, leaders, residents, and history stand on that same square — gathered around a building that took log cabins and two-story frames and one catastrophic fire and nearly seventy years of trying before it finally got built the way it deserved to be. Some things, it turns out, are worth the wait.
What the marker says
The Texas Legislature created Henderson County in 1846. For the next few years, county commissioners met at various locations, including private homes and the communities of Buffalo and Centerville. Samuel Huffer later determined the center of the county was on the Thomas Parmer survey, and Matthew Cartwright secured 160 acres for the new courthouse. In 1850, the county seat moved to Athens, which was incorporated in 1856. County commissioners hired John Loop to construct a log courthouse. It served as the court building for 11 years. In 1860, William Warenskjold began construction on a two-story frame courthouse, which burned in 1885, leaving only the district and county clerk buildings standing. C.H. Hawn & Co. constructed the next courthouse, which was used until 1913. That June, with a design by L.L. Thurmon & Company of Dallas, the commissioners court approved the bid of L.R. Wright & Company to build a new courthouse on the square. Accepted by the court in January 1914, the Henderson County Courthouse exhibits a Classical Revival design. The building is comprised of three floors above a basement, and features a central dome and four three-bay pedimented entries with Tuscan columns. The cross-axial plan is formed from a central block with single bays projecting from each corner. Original detailing includes marble stairways and wainscoting on the interior. Since becoming the county's public center, the courthouse has been the location of the "Old Fiddlers" contest and other events. Today, memorials and tributes to Henderson County veterans, leaders, residents and history are located on the square. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2002