Borden County courthouse, Gail, Texas

Photographed May 5, 2007.

Borden County was one of the first courthouses I photographed. It's located on US 180, a wonderful route that parallels IH-20 and passes through 10 county seats beginning with Weatherford (just west of Fort Worth), Palo Pinto, Breckenridge, Albany, Anson, Roby, Snyder, Gail, Lamesa, and Seminole, just before entering New Mexico. Then, US 180 re-enters Texas and finishes its westward journey in El Paso, for a total of 11 courthouses!

Borden County is named for Gail Borden of Galveston, inventor of condensed milk. Mr. Borden never set foot in the county named for him, but he gets extra points for being the only Texan with a county seat and a county named for him. (i.e. Gail, Borden)

As counties go, it's pretty empty: only about 729 persons were counted in the 2000 census. Gail is the only community of note in Borden County. As you can see from the photos, it's a sparsely settled town.

The courthouse dates from 1939 and was designed by David S. Castle. Befitting the population of Borden County, it's a small, one-story building. The style is generic Moderne with some bas-relief scuptural accents. This building replaced an 1890 courthouse. I haven't found a photo of that building.

On the back porch of the courthouse I found the home of the "courthouse cat" along with a sign on the door regarding unwanted entry by said cat.

The adjacent county jail was constructed in 1896 by Diebold Safe and Lock for $4,500. It boasts 2 foot thick stone walls and 1/3 inch thick steel plate floors, walls, and ceilings! There must have been some bad guys in Borden County in those days.

Irion County Texas, Part 2

The first photograph is the Orient railroad in Irion County. Next is a view of the current Irion County courthouse in Mertzon. It's much larger than the Sherwood courthouse and is sited on top of a hill overlooking the town of Mertzon.

The remainder of today's images are of the Sherwood courthouse, including one of the new windows with arcylic glazing.

Irion County Texas

Photographed May 11, 2009. Now a community center, the first Irion County courthouse was built in 1901. At the time, Sherwood had a population of about 300, making it the biggest community in the county. The Second Empire styled courthouse was constructed of local stone. The tower boasts a "false" clock. No need to worry about time, however, since it was correct twice a day. During our visit, Clark and I were given access to the interior by a couple of men who were replacing the wooden windows in the building. (They were also installing acrylic panels in place of glass to prevent them from being broken by stray bullets. At least that's what they told us.)

The building is square in plan, with doors in the center of each facade. A central hall opens into a stairway on the west side of the building. A large courtroom occupies the east half of the building's second floor. In order to span across the courtroom and support the tower above, the builder's utilized heavy timber and iron framing to create what is essentially a "bridge" structure in the attic. Our tour included a climb up into the attic to admire this structure, and enjoy the aroma of a century's worth of bird droppings.

Sherwood lost its reason for being, when in 1910 the railroad (Kansas City, Mexico and Orient, known simply as the Orient) passed it by. Nearby Mertzon, a "railroad" town was founded by the Orient and then it was only a matter of time before the county seat was moved to what was now the biggest community in Irion County. Sherwood never recovered, even losing its post office in 1974.

The monumental former courthouse now presides over what remains of the former community. Fortunately, it's in relatively good condition as it enters its second century and the clock still works.

So many courthouses, so little time!

St. Luke's Hospital in Houston, Texas has a display honoring Mavis P. Kelsey, Sr., M.D., for visiting and photographing all 254 county courthouses in Texas. (I learned later that he published a book "The Courthouses of Texas" with a page devoted to each county and an image of the courthouse.) I happened across this display a few years ago and was intrigued. Having taken the required course in Texas history during my youth, I'm sure the number of counties, 254, had crossed my mind before. However, looking at a photographic collection of all those courthouses in a corridor of St. Luke's Hospital made an impression on me. I remember thinking that 254 was certainly a lot of counties. It must have taken a lot of time to visit each and every one of them.

Not that I decided then and there to follow Dr. Kelsey's path and duplicate his significant achievement. That would come later. Regardless, this was the moment that idea first crossed my mind.

I am an architect, so the courthouses of Texas were not completely unknown to me. There were many famous, historic Texas courthouses that I had seen in my travels. An avid photographer, I had even shot a few of them.

Then, on Saturday, April 14, 2007 I found myself in Columbus, Texas at a lecture by two friends of mine, Paul Hester and Lisa Hardaway. Both of them are professional photographers and they were speaking at the opening of a show of their work: "Historic Texas Courthouses." Paul and Lisa provided the photographs for a book of that title, by Michael Andrews. In the course of photographing courthouses for the book, Paul and Lisa visited numerous Texas counties, but not all 254 of them. I bought a copy of the book on the spot and began to read it the next day.

Of particular interest to me was the Irion County courthouse in Sherwood, Texas. I'd never heard of the county or the town of Sherwood. I learned that Irion County is west of San Angelo and that Sherwood was the first county seat. A beautiful, 2 story stone courthouse is about all that remains of Sherwood: the county seat was moved to nearby Mertzon in 1936. The image of this long forgotten courthouse in a out of the way county somewhere in the vast expanses of west Texas was something I couldn't forget.

A month later, in May 2007, I was traveling from Abilene to Clovis, NM with my father and my uncle. We decided to take a circuitous between the two cities. Along the way, we stopped in Gail, the county seat of Borden County. Population wise, Borden County is one of the smallest in the state. Gail has about 200 people and the entire county only about 680. But, of course, there is a courthouse. We stopped and admired the building. I took some photos and we moved on. I was interested in this little known and insignificant county but not yet motivated to visit all the 253 other counties in Texas.

It wasn't until May of 2009 that I had the opportunity to visit Sherwood and Mertzon, in Irion County. My uncle, Clark Brannan, and I spent a day driving south and west from his home in Abilene to the likes of Bronte, San Angelo, Sherwood, Mertzon, Sterling City, and Robert Lee. It was a glorious spring day and we had a wonderful time. We were given a personal tour of the Sherwood courthouse by craftsmen restoring the windows in the building. I was now officially hooked on Texas courthouses.

On this trip I photographed each courthouse we visited. I was now commited: I would attempt to visit and photograph all 254 county courthouses in Texas. Actually, it turns out there are more than 254 courthouses. Some counties have multiple courthouses (e.g. Irion). So, the final number of buildings I'll photograph remains unknown.

I can't wait to see the next one.