The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 62
574 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
county clerk and ex-officio county recorder, the district clerk, and
the tax assessor. The upper floor was devoted to the courtroom
used by the county court, acting both in law and in probate, the
district court, and the county commissioners court as well. The
courtroom was dwarfed by a large and bulky criminal dock or box
that the judge of the district court afterwards ordered removed.123
In 1859 the district judge further ordered the county to cover the
courtroom floor with Indian or cocoa matting as a means of re-
ducing noise.124 The public interpreted perhaps too liberally the
public nature of the courthouse, for in 186o the county commis-
sioners court was obliged to pass a resolution that no person other
than county officers was entitled to occupy rooms in the building
for any purpose, whether for sleeping or for transacting busi-
ness.125 In 1857 cracks began to appear in the courthouse walls. At
first the county appropriated funds for repairing the building,a26
but after three years the commissioners court concluded to build
a new courthouse, along Congress Avenue, to the north of the
existing building. Michael DeChaumes took the contract for the
new building, and architect that he was, he probably designed it
as well, and the county appointed Charles J. Grainger as superin-
tendent of works and inspector.127 After the new building was
enclosed and floored, the outbreak of the Civil War put an end
to further construction, and throughout the course of the war it
was used by Confederate authorities.2as County business continued
to be carried on in the old building.
Unlike the market square, the courthouse square was not
wholly surrounded by business houses. Instead, it was substan-
tially fronted by private residences.12 On the northeast corner of
Congress and Fannin, however, was the post office, presided over
of Houston, Texas, from a Study of Original Sources (Knoxville, 1912), 392; Gray,
Memories.
128Minutes of the xlth District Court (MS., District Clerk's Office, Houston),
I, io8.
124Ibid., 388.
125Minutes of the County Commissioners Court of Harris County (MS., County
Clerk's Office, Houston), A, Pt. II, 249.
6Ielbid., Pt. I, 159.
127Ibid., Pt. II, 246-247, 253, 262.
128Work Projects Administration (comp.), Houston, 242.
12BYoung, True Stories, 230.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961, periodical, 1961; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101190/m1/80/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.