DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker for the Rains County Courthouse is the authority here, and I'm just the one bringin' it to life for you. Now, before Emory was Emory, it was Springville — a quiet little community sitting inside Wood County, minding its own business. Then 1870 came along, and the Texas Legislature decided it was time to carve something new out of the land.
They pulled pieces from four different counties and stitched them together into Rains County, named in honor of a man called Emory Rains, an early Texas patriot. And wouldn't you know it, that little town of Springville got pulled right to the center of the whole arrangement. They made it the seat of government, gave it a new name — Emory, same as the man himself — and pointed at an existing public square and said, that's where the courthouse goes.
Now, the first courthouse they put up was a log structure. Temporary, they called it. And it served the county for nearly two years while something better got figured out.
Eventually a two-room building went up, which felt like progress — right up until 1879, when fire came calling and took the whole thing down, records and all. Every document, every deed, every piece of paper the county had kept. Gone.
So Rains County dusted itself off and went back to the old log structure, hat in hand, and waited. By 1884, they had something to be proud of — a two-story, red brick courthouse standing on that same square. Real permanence.
Real authority. And it stood there doing its job until 1908, when fire came calling a second time. Now here is where the story takes a turn worth savoring.
The building was gutted. But sitting in the rubble, unmoved and unbroken, was a steel vault. And inside that vault?
The county records. Every last one of them, safe. So when the county decided to build again, they did something that feels almost like legend.
They hired the Bryan Architectural Company out of St. Louis, Missouri to design the new courthouse, and that design was built around the steel vault — still sitting right there in its original location, like it had earned the right to stay. And the crushed brick from that 1884 building that burned?
They used it in the foundation of the new one. The Falls City Construction Company out of Louisville, Kentucky did the building, and when the doors opened in 1909, Rains County had itself a courthouse worth the wait. What they got was a structure with a cruciform plan — projecting wings reaching out in four directions — clad in ginger brick made just three miles to the east at the Fraser Brick Company in a town literally called Ginger, both the town and the brick named for the distinctive color of the local clay.
The style is Classical Revival — pilasters, pediment-capped entries, the works. And sitting on top of it all is a central dome that, according to the historical record, wasn't even part of the original design. Sometimes the best details have a way of showing up uninvited and making themselves at home.
Over the years, that courthouse square has drawn more than just county business. Sam Rayburn, U.S. Speaker of the House, once stood there and spoke.
So did former president Lyndon Johnson. The square has hosted fairs, festivals, celebrations, and parades, and it continues to serve as the beating heart of Emory and Rains County to this day. Two fires, one stubborn vault, and over a century of community life — all of it anchored to a square that started as Springville and grew into something far harder to burn.
What the marker says
The community of Emory was once called Springville, part of Wood County. In 1870, the Texas Legislature created Rains County from portions of four other counties. Named for early Texas patriot Emory Rains, the county chose Springville as its center of government, renaming it Emory and choosing an existing public square for the site of the county courthouse. The first courthouse, a temporary log structure, served the county for nearly two years, when a two-room building was constructed. It and all the records housed within it burned in 1879, and the county returned to the log structure until a two-story, red brick courthouse was completed in 1884. It was gutted by fire in 1908, but the steel vault containing county records survived the fire. The Bryan Architectural Company of St. Louis, Missouri was selected to design a new courthouse, built around the steel vault still in its original location. Crushed brick from the 1884 building was used in the foundation. The Falls City Construction Company of Louisville, Kentucky served as builder, and the new facility opened in 1909. The courthouse exhibits a unique cruciform plan with projecting wings. The exterior is of ginger brick, produced at the Fraser Brick Co. in Ginger (3 mi. East); both the town and brick were named for the distinctive clay color. Designed in the Classical Revival style, the structure features pilasters and pediment-capped entries, as well as a central dome, reportedly not part of the original design. The courthouse square has long served as a social gathering place. Notable speakers on the square have included U.S. Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and former president Lyndon Johnson. The site of community fairs, festivals, celebrations and parades, the square continues to be a focal point for Emory and Rains County. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2002