County to decide look of restored courthouse

The commissioners’ court will decided what a restored Donley County Courthouse is going to look like next Monday.

 
County Commissioners will be deciding which style seating will be put in the district courtroom as part of a $2.9 million restoration of the 1890 building. The bench in front is one of the original fixtures. The theater seats behind it are some that were installed circa 1913. And the church pews in the background is the seating used today.

Enterprise Digital Photo.
 
Deliberations will focus on the orientation of courtroom. According to local recollections, the room was originally situated with the judge’s bench in the north. Physical evidence in the courtroom supports this theory, but for most of the building’s history the bench has been in the south.

Also at issue will be the seating in the courtroom. Last month, project architect Chris Hutson pulled some of the old wooden theatre seats from the courthouse attic. But this was not the original seating. He also found a bench, similar to a park bench with a folding seat. Records indicate that these original benches from the courtroom were sold to the Goldston School in 1912.

Hutson says going with the original benches may be cheaper since another courthouse project in the state is having similar benches recreated at the same time. However, the theatre style seats are more attractive, and many of them are in the attic.

When commissioners meet on Monday, they also will be determining what time period the building should be restored to as required by the Texas Historical Commission. Based on previous decisions, that date will be prior to 1914. Whether they shoot for 1913 or 1912 will be decided in large part on what seating is chosen for the courtroom.

Once the target date is set, decisions regarding paint colors, lighting fixtures, etc., will be made in accordance with that time period.

In other courthouse project news, Hutson says his company, the Austin-based Volz & Associates, may be on the trail of the quarry where stones for the 1890 building were raised. A stonecutter in Colorado has led the architects to a quarry in Kansas – a quarry known to have sent large amounts of stone to Texas in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Hutson wants the stone tested to make sure it won’t have the same problems that currently plague the stones in the courthouse.

The county has also discovered a second hidden fireplace. The first had been found sealed up in the elevator shaft on the second floor, and this new one was in a corresponding place on the first floor. Hutson says plans are to take the fireplaces apart and use them to restore or rebuild other fireplaces in the building.

Officials say the courthouse project is on schedule, and the county is tentatively scheduled to advertise for bids on the abatement of asbestos and bat guano in a couple of weeks. Bids for construction are expected to be let in late March with construction slated to start in April.

A target date of April 22, 2002, has been set to complete the project.