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Texas Courthouses

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Teeds

Teeds

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Tony
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Eeds
The thread about the bridges got me to thinking about a goal I have been working on for about four years. I am close to completing my goal of visiting all 254 county courthouses in Texas. In my professional capacity as a preservation architect, I often get opportunities to visit our smaller communities and decided to fulfill a life long dream and visit them all. All that is left is the upper panhandle and a couple between San Antonio and Victoria. It has been a wonderful experience and I have met many memorable people during my journeys.

I think I will start again as soon as I complete my goal, except only count them if I use my bike this time. The trip will be longer and the roads even smaller.

If you have never considered this goal, I highly recommend it.

What is your favorite county seat? To date, mine is Mason although all are charming in their own right.
 
Ours is being renovated as we speak:

Willamson.JPG


I like the copper dome:

Court_House_dome_big.jpg


You'll appreciate this link I found:

http://www.angelfire.com/tx6/courthouse/xmas.html
 
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Thanks for the link. I had that once upon a time, but lost it when my computer died.

Williamson County Courthouse is one of my favorite. I have some good friends there. One runs Main Street and the other owns Baker Signs.

My mother's family is from Palo Pinto, my father's from Lockhart, I was raised in Fort Worth, so I grew up playing in the shade of some really nice courthouses.
 
Hey Teeds, did you gather any photos/data on previous courthouses?

I like the courthouse in Coldspring. The old one burned down in the early 1900s, but I cannot remember what it looked like, other than it was made of wood.

I don't like the Travis courthouse but I've always liked the courthouse in Georgetown. Enjoyed appearing in court there more than Travis Co. too. :-)
 
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I always like the old courthouses and main streets, years ago I knew the guy who ran the Oklahoma Main Street program and it really seemed interesting. My only experince with older buildings was redoing a building in the Bricktown district of OKC. A cast-in-place concrete warehouse built in 1930, it had mostly in-fill brick. It was stripped and a new skin and floor was added. Now I just do new tilt-wall office and warehouse buildings.
 
whoa said:
Hey Teeds, did you gather any photos/data on previous courthouses?
Click to expand...

Very little. The Texas Historical Commission has a great deal of information in their archives. I have tracked down and photographed abandoned courthouses in various towns, Blanco and Sherwood being a couple.

Historic Courthouses in Texas - listing of all the courthouses with build dates, architects, etc.

Rededicated Historic County Courthouses in Texas - listing of all restored courthouses.
 
Wow, Teeds, that's an accomplishment. :chug:

Especially if you did it on one of your mini-bikes...! ;-)

TWTers chatted about doing something similar when I posted a ride report about 15 months ago. Here was the rather nice looking Coryell Co. courthouse, in Gatesville, from that weekend:

gatesvillechmed.jpg
 
Man, I was just thinking about this last night! I have setup categories in the photo gallery where folks can stick pics of bridges, panoramas, and water crossings. Got me to thinking about the various courthous related websites I had seen. What do ya'll think? Should I stick on in there?
 
Tourmeister said:
Man, I was just thinking about this last night! I have setup categories in the photo gallery where folks can stick pics of bridges, panoramas, and water crossings. Got me to thinking about the various courthous related websites I had seen. What do ya'll think? Should I stick on in there?
Click to expand...

Sure add a catagory. It would be fun to see everybody's additions. I can't add any of mine at this point because my mode of transportation has been my Chevy Silverado to date! I promise to get out on my XR once it warms up.

An engineer that my father worked with had 9 (yes nine!) maps that were shaded out (his method of keeping track) before he died. To make in harder ... he could not start a new map until he had finished one. That, my friends, is an obsession.

The XR is my first even quasi street bike and I look forward to enjoying it more when it gets warmer (14F here this morning), so expect to see some output soon.
 
Once on a trip from Austin to Lake Texoma, I unintentionally rode past a half dozen county courthouses and thought that would be a great excuse for a major Texas motorcycle tour.... to visit as many as possible.

Ellis County Courthouse is one of my favorites.

imgEllis1.jpg
 
whoa said:
The old one burned down in the early 1900s, but I cannot remember what it looked like, other than it was made of wood.
Click to expand...

I read that there is not a single surviving wooden courthouse in Texas, and that Texas wooden courthouses were over fifty times more likely to burn down than wooden churches or schools in the same town. Oddly, wooden courthouses usually burned down in the middle of the night. ;)

Tom
 
Hey guys,

I started doing the courthouse thing Last April. I am trying to do them on the bike, but it's not a requirement. I did not get many during the heat of the summer, but I have 135 done. I can't wait to get to do some more.

Janet
 

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Tourmeister said:
Man, I was just thinking about this last night! I have setup categories in the photo gallery where folks can stick pics of bridges, panoramas, and water crossings. Got me to thinking about the various courthous related websites I had seen. What do ya'll think? Should I stick on in there?
Click to expand...

I've also seen cool pics of Texas churches from various groups. Considering our mode of transportation, not a bad idea to stop into these sites from time to time anyway. ;-)

Suppose the list could get rather long, old barns, vistas, crashes...
 
Janet said:
Hey guys,

I started doing the courthouse thing Last April.

Janet
Click to expand...

Janet:

135 in one riding season is a bunch. That is over half way.

I have got to know how you managed to get to Sanderson without hitting a few others around there? I did go to/through Ozona, Sanderson, Marfa and Van Horn on my last DS ride in the area, but I had already bagged those.

I have not counted lately, but I would say I am around 230 at this time.

Greg:

That is a great site overall.
 
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Okay, so I will set up a Courthouse and Church category.
 
Tourmeister said:
Okay, so I will set up a Courthouse and Church category.
Click to expand...

Churches too?!?!?!?!? Another "favorite"

Oh no! Can I upload photos that were taken when I was driving my Silverado? If so, I'm off ... I have almost 30,000 images I have taken in Texas since I got my first digital camera.
 
Teeds said:
Churches too?!?!?!?!? Another "favorite"

Oh no! Can I upload photos that were taken when I was driving my Silverado? .
Click to expand...

(checks web site name)

Sure, if your Silverado has only two wheels!!!!

Actually, I don't care, I just wanted to be snippy, for some reason... :moon:
 
txmedic said:
Yamaha has a Road Star Silverado, Mr. Poopy Pants. :-P
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:ugg: Being a dual sport rider, I didn't know that.

I will clarify ... 2005 Chevrolet Silverado HD2500 Duramax/Allison SB 4 dr pickup
 
buck000 said:
(checks web site name)

Sure, if your Silverado has only two wheels!!!!

Actually, I don't care, I just wanted to be snippy, for some reason... :moon:
Click to expand...

I was bustin' on Buck000 :-P
 
Teeds said:
I have got to know how you managed to get to Sanderson without hitting a few others around there?
Click to expand...

Teeds,

I did a Saddle Sore ride from Dallas, to Pecos, down through Larado to Harlengen, up to Houston and back to Dallas. I was able to get Terrell, Dimmit and Zapata because it was daylight, I rode right past them without having to drive around, and I could stop quickly and then catch up with the guys.
I went through 43 counties on that trip and only got 3 pictures....:-(

Janet
 
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A while back the The Texas DS group had an ABC county courthouse competition going on where you got a photo of your bike in front of a courthouse From A to Z. I think we got to D. We did a lot better with the ABC town ride, where we got though the entire alphabet except fot X.
Tim
 

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How about adding one for historical marks. There are a whole bunch in Texas and not all of them are on main roads.

FJR Bandit.

PS. How about only pics with your bike or yourself in riding gear in them? After all this is a two wheel forum.
 
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