Posted 10:09 am Monday, September 27, 2010
East Texans Remember Tyler's 1910 Courthouse
By DAYNA MAZZEI WORCHEL
Staff Writer
On Oct. 6, 1910, amid orchestras, bands, prayers, and speeches, a $165,000 Smith County courthouse was dedicated. The front page of the Tyler Courier-Times--Telegraph called it "one of the handsomest courthouses in Texas," and "a modern building."
Staff Writer
On Oct. 6, 1910, amid orchestras, bands, prayers, and speeches, a $165,000 Smith County courthouse was dedicated. The front page of the Tyler Courier-Times--Telegraph called it "one of the handsomest courthouses in Texas," and "a modern building."
Smith County Judge J.A. Bulloch, among other speakers, addressed a large crowd, saying he "felt sure that the people of Smith County were proud of the magnificent structure and that it would serve future generations for many years to come."
The previous courthouse, built in 1852, had served the county for about 60 years. By the turn of the century, more space was needed, and contracts were issued to construct what would become the sixth courthouse for Smith County, according to the fall 1964 edition of the Chronicles of Smith County, Texas.
The three-story stone courthouse, designed by C.H. Paige, was built with a basement underground, and sported a rotunda which was 36 feet in diameter.
On Nov. 10, 1909, the Courier-Times--Telegraph reported on the placement of the Goddess of Liberty on top of the dome, according the Chronicles. "Yesterday, the courthouse workmen elevated one woman in this city to a most exalted position ... this is a copper figure, 11 feet in height, representing a woman, holding in one hand a sword and in the other, the scales of justice ... the old lady was hugged several times while being put in her exalted position."
By early 1910, a 6-foot diameter clock was installed on the top of the courthouse with a black face and Roman numerals and gold-colored hands. The clock was actually started at 8:45 a.m. on Feb. 10, 1910, and the striking bell was heard six miles away.
On Oct. 23, 1909, Ollie Sorrels and Finis Baker decided on impulse to get married in the new but empty courthouse, according to the Chronicles article.
Reverend Isaac Sellers of North Tyler Baptist Church officiated in the west end of the second floor hallway, along with some construction workers who were asked to serve as witnesses.
But there is some darker history to the 1910 courthouse. According to published reports in The Palestine Herald and The New York Times, Jim Hodges, a black man, was hanged at the courthouse while it was under construction after he was accused of attacking and beating Winnie Harmon, an 18-year-old white woman.
By 1948, with the growth of business and industry in the area, a movement began to convert the public square to commercial use, and to open Broadway to traffic across the square to vehicles. The 1910 courthouse would have to be torn down to accomplish this, but not without a legal battle in which Smith County filed a "friendly" lawsuit against the city of Tyler in 1948 to determine true ownership of the square.
The county claimed full ownership of the square and the courthouse and the right to dispose of either without an election. The city claimed it owned the square, and after initial rulings by the District Court and the Court of Appeals, the Texas Supreme Court ruled to approve the plan to open Broadway through the square without condemnation proceedings, according to Burton's article.
U.S. Sen. Horace Chilton, born close to Tyler in 1853, spoke on July 7, 1909, when the cornerstone for the 1910 courthouse was laid. His words about the Tyler of the future proved to be remarkably accurate.
"And if a hundred years from now when this county has come to hold a population of a quarter of a million, when Tyler has taken on the clothes of a metropolis, when perhaps a new corner stone of a bigger courthouse comes to be laid, the Tylerites of that far day when they come to demolish this structure and from its cornerstone is brought to light the names of those who live today, may they be found to be true names in the history of Texas."
Construction started on the current Smith County Courthouse, the seventh for the county, in February 1954.
