County Seat – Palestine
Built – 1914
Architect – C.H. & Austin Page
Style – Renaissance Revival
Pictures taken – 12/30/03 – 1-4/04 and 3/2/03.
These pictures were taken on a New Year’s trip to Palestine, visiting our good friends – Mary & Mike. This was my first attempt at taking night pictures, using night scene and using a tripod. They came out OK, but I was really impressed by Clem’s picture of the dome at night using the 10X zoom on the Olympus. It was at this point that I decided I would start carrying both cameras. On the same trip, I ran out of battery at Smith county, which added to my resolve to begin carrying both the Olympus and the Canon.
Back to the County Courthouse. It really is one of the beautiful courthouses – very classical. Adding to that classic look is the impressive night lights. Probably the most notable aspect of the courthouse is the dome and the lady of justice holding the scales. This became even more impressive when we went inside of the courthouse a few days later. The stairwell, marble – all leading up to the top of the dome – with stained glass surely makes this one of the top courthouses in Texas.
I also took a few shots of the courthouse from afar. This building is situated so that is seen from various spots coming into town. I am going to try to take other courthouses from outside their squares. This can help give the feeling of domination that many of the buildings have over the towns they sit in.
see Anderson County Jail – c1930’s
I have just found your website and what a treat to see Anderson County as the Courthouse of the month. My husband is a descendant of one of the oldest family’s in Anderson County and were he grew up. When I thought about a Bucket List about three years ago I found it to be quite a short list. I smile with more miles to travel in my own state then to the other five places I wish to visit put together combined. I currently have only 18 courthouses completely or partially photographed (outside photos only). Of those several were about to or undergoing renovation and I have plans to return to photograph those. The best photo I took to date of a courthouse can be seen on my Pinterest Page of Anderson County as the Title Page for my first courthouse album as I am also an avid scrapbooker! The rest of the photos wait to be scrapped as the proper term used by scrappers.
http://www.pinterest.com/killarneyrose/my-texas-courthouse-scrapbook/
My interest started in courthouses when my husband and I drove through Centerville in ’07 we found the Leon Cty Courthouse under renovation. I asked him to stop so I could take some photos. When we returned home I immediately went to the computer and at that time I could only find texascourthouses.com. As teenager in the 70’s I remember Hill County’s courthouse was the “It” courthouse for Houston TV News Stations as the example of a beautiful courthouse. But to go through the Texas Courthouses website I found courthouse after courthouse that was beautiful in it’s own right. I am am excited about each one I photograph so to date I have no favorite. I am now understanding what a courthouse means to a county especially our state’s rural counties. The last courthouse I photographed was Throckmorton County, standing empty with windows open and sorrowful that it’s daily residents were absent. Yet this gem in Northwest Texas was about to undergo renovation to her former glory! I am keeping up with her renovation and look forward to returning the next time we visit RA Brown ranch.