DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Now, you want to talk about a building that earned its name the hard way — through fire, through loss, through a county that kept coming back and building bigger — let me tell you about Old Red. It starts, as so many Dallas stories do, with John Neely Bryan.
Back in 1844, when Bryan laid out his city plat, he set aside a piece of ground as public land. Just designated it, right there in the plan — this spot belongs to everybody. And when Dallas County was created in 1846, that's exactly where they put the courthouse.
A log courthouse, nothing fancy, but it was theirs. Then in 1850, Dallas won election as permanent county seat. Won it.
And Bryan himself deeded that property over to the county, made it official. They turned around and erected a larger log structure on the same ground. Building number two, same sacred dirt.
By 1856 they'd gone up in the world — a two-story brick edifice, county offices and all. That must have felt permanent. It wasn't.
In 1860 a fire came through and nearly destroyed the entire city. Nearly. They rebuilt.
Same spot, new structure. That's courthouse number three if you're keepin' count. Number four arrived in 1871 — a two-story granite structure, sturdy enough that folks probably thought the fire problem was finally solved.
It wasn't. Fire came callin' in 1880, and the building survived. Barely caught its breath before fire came back in 1890 and finished the job.
Now here's where the story turns. Because when that fourth courthouse burned in 1890, Dallas County did not blink. They started the fifth courthouse that very same year.
And they did not go small. Architect M. A.
Orlopp designed the thing in the Romanesque Revival style — massive scale, rounded arches, the kind of building that says we are not going anywhere. The lower floor and the window trim are blue granite. The upper stories are red sandstone.
Eight circular turrets dominate the design. Eight. And perched up on that roof, four clay figures standing watch.
Then there was the clock tower. Topped the whole building with a bell weighing four thousand five hundred pounds. Can you imagine hearing that thing roll across the Trinity bottomland on a still morning?
That bell rang over Dallas until 1919, when the clock tower was removed. Two of those four clay figures came down too, somewhere along the way. Old Red was completed in 1892, and it served as the seat of Dallas County government through decades of growth that would have made John Neely Bryan's head spin.
By 1965, the county needed more room and built a new courthouse. Some offices stayed on in the 1890 building, which was renovated in 1968. So there it stands — fifth on the same ground Bryan marked in 1844, survivor of a lineage that burned and rebuilt four times before it arrived.
Old Red didn't get that name by accident. It earned every shade of it.
What the marker says
Designated as public land in John Neely Bryan's 1844 city plat, this was the site of a log courthouse built after Dallas County was created in 1846. When Dallas won election as permanent county seat in 1850, Bryan deeded the property to the county, and a larger log structure was erected. In 1856 county offices occupied a 2-story brick edifice, rebuilt in 1860 after a fire that almost destroyed the city. The fourth courthouse, a 2-story granite structure erected in 1871, survived one fire in 1880 before it burned again in 1890. The Old Red Courthouse, the fifth seat of county government, was begun in 1890 and completed in 1892. Designed by Architect M. A. Orlopp, it exemplifies the Romanesque Revival style with its massive scale and rounded arches. The blue granite of the lower floor and window trim contrasts with the red sandstone of the upper stories. Eight circular turrets dominate the design. A clock tower with a 4500-pound bell originally topped the building, but it was removed in 1919. Two of the four clay figures perched on the roof have also been removed. To house the expanding county government, a new courthouse was built in 1965. Some offices remained in the 1890 structure, which was renovated in 1968. RTHL - 1977