DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm taking it from there. Now, Tarrant County has had its share of bold moves, but few quite as bold as what happened in the years 1893 to 1895. That's when the firm of Gunn and Curtis put pencil to paper and dreamed up something grand — and the Probst Construction Company of Chicago came down to make it real.
What they built was a red Texas granite courthouse, done up in Renaissance Revival style, and here's the part that'll make you look twice: it closely resembles the Texas State Capitol itself. The main difference? A clock tower.
That's it. Someone in Tarrant County looked at the seat of state government and said, we'll take one of those, thank you very much. Now, the final bill came to four hundred and eight thousand, eight hundred and forty dollars.
Say that number slow and let it settle. In 1893, that was the kind of figure that could make a taxpayer's eye twitch. And twitch they did.
Citizens considered it such a public extravagance that in 1894 — before the building was even finished — they went ahead and elected an entirely new County Commissioners' Court. The whole lot, replaced. The courthouse outlasted every one of them, standing in red granite and Renaissance Revival glory, looking just enough like the Capitol to make a point, whatever that point may have been.
What the marker says
Designed by firm of Gunn & Curtis and built by the Probst Construction Company of Chicago, 1893-1895. This red Texas granite building, in Renaissance Revival style, closely resembles the Texas State Capital with the exception of the clock tower. The cost was $408,840 and citizens considered it such a public extravagance that a new County Commissioners' Court was elected in 1894.