Texas County Courthouses

I’m taking a little breather from the Courthouse site and working on a family site.  They are very different from each other.  Anyhow, I’ll be back, probably changing the table set up again – just a little.  I’ll probably go with the picture only as the link to the county pages.  It will create a much more uniform look to the whole page.  I added Bexar County – hope you enjoy it.

Burnet County Courthouse

Well, I’ve been fooling around with the tables for too long – so I decided to add a courthouse today.  Still working on the B’s – so I added Burnet County.  Really a great representative of the moderne/art deco style.  Market days was going on when we stopped – so there are lots of pictures in the ‘town square’ series.  Also had a historic county jail.  Quite the package.

As to my problems with tables – I think I’m settled on one plug in by someone named Tobias in Germany.   I’ve figured out how to add some of the touches I wanted – like photos in the table and the county name coming up when you put your cursor over the county choice.  It may not be ideal – but I like it and I’m moving on – like I said in an earlier post.

I don’t know why – but I thought I could see the names in the counties listings – so then I could highlight and link – but that’s not what I got.  There’s no way for me to link the name to the county page – at least for now.  I’ve got a query in and I’m trying some other potential solutions – but for the meantime – I’m just going to list the counties that I’ve uploaded under the nice looking tables and will link them.  I’m still trying.

After finding some solutions to slideshows, I then had to face the fact that my list of counties was not doing well – so I decided I needed tables. I asked my WordPress instructor, and he really didn’t have a solution (except for the obvious – do a plug-in search). In my html class we had coded a table – so I tried to apply that knowledge – but I wasn’t pleased with that – so, I did a search on plug-ins and found 4 or 5. I downloaded one just to start somewhere, and while it doesn’t really present the way I had in my mind – at least there’s order to my county lists now. Another issue crossed off. I’ll be plowing on, adding a few counties a day. My friend Clem has volunteered to gather all pictures together and make selections for uploaded and improving them as he sees fit. That helps bunches, believe.

The one problem I’m having is actually getting out on the road and start ‘live’ blogging the courthouse journey. Should be happening soon, though.

Tom

Anderson County Courthouse @ Dusk

After much agonizing about the photo galleries and slideshows, I think I’ve finally got enough knowledge to move forward.  In that vein, I’ve added 3 counties today – Atascosa, Angelina and Anderson.   Anderson County Courthouse really is one of the classics.  Anyhow, with those additions, I’ve uploaded all the A’s that I have (not very many) and will be working on the B’s and C

Retired Blanco County Courthouse in Blanco, Texas

Attended a ‘cheese tasting’ event at Juniper Hills. A favorite of ours – it’s located in the Hill country county of Blanco. While attending the event, I met up with lots of interesting people – including Bob & his wife Carolyn (and his sister and brother-in-law Barbara and Nigel). Bob and Carolyn also live in rural Blanco County and have become involved in the efforts to maintain and restore the old Blanco county courthouse in Blanco, Texas. It’s on the square and well worth a stop if you’re on your own county courthouse tour. It’s circa 1880 and has been protected by the citizens of Blanco ever since the county seat was moved to Johnson City. I’m looking forward to input and contributions from Bob & Carolyn as they seem to have really gotten into county courthouses. Bob’s sister Barbara and husband Nigel were visiting from Nairobi, Kenya.

btw – Juniper Hills is a super place to take a cooking class or attending a cooking demonstration. It’s run by Sibby Barrett, whom I consider a friend after attending so many classes of hers. She has a great new kitchen/demonstration area and cabins for rental. Take a look at her website. I’ve included a link on the from page.

In honor of meeting these great people of Blanco, Texas – I will be adding both the Blanco County courthouse in Johnson City, Texas and the retired courthouse in Blanco, Texas this weekend. If everything works out – I will be adding more than that – but I’m kind of getting stuck on presenting good slideshows for the gallery pictures. This may take some time to conquer – and when I do, I’ll have to redo the counties I’ve already included.

I’m plugging along here – I’ve cleaned up the site a little.  Still – lots of links and tags, etc. to remove, to add, to make better.  I’ve added my first county – Aransas, which is probably the WORST choice, but I had to start somewhere.  I’m in the processing of adding Austin County.  Not another great choice – as their grand courthouse burned down some years ago.  But it does have a wonderful example of Victorian jails – so look for that in the ‘Other’ category.

I’ll be continuing to add pictures and information from my existing cache, but will soon start travelling, so I’ll do some ‘live’ blogging then.

Tom

this is my first attempt at a blog. I’ve chosen a Texas theme so that I can do three things at once: Travel the entire state of Texas; share my experience; and document the tremendous variety & grandeur that make the collection of Texas County Courthouses. I will be sharing photos, my impressions of each courthouse and any other sights or happenings as we travel. We’ve already visited over 90 of the courthouses – and I will be adding these – a few each week. For each courthouse, I will be providing you the courthouse information including when it was built; who the architect was, the style, and my impressions. I will also be adding extras where encountered – like extant courthouses or old jail houses. So join Clem and I as we travel this great state we call home – Texas.

Tom