Day by Day

We were very disappointed when we arrived in Lufkin to find one of the ugliest courthouses we have visited so far.
It is a beautiful little town. Amazing restoration going on everywhere.
I wonder, I walked around the square and looked at markers with pictures of a beautiful old domed courthouse on it but no mention of where it was or why there is a concrete box structure sitting on the square now.
The whole story be hind it is ironic and heartbreaking.
There was nothing wrong with the building. It just so happened that the commissioners decided they needed a new modern courthouse. Simple as that.
In 1953 the old one was torn down to make way for the new. Oh... there is more!
Turns out that the old courthouse was designed by the famous James Riley Gordon, the man responsible for the designs of eighteen Texas courthouses during two decades of practice in Texas.
Today, twelve of the landmark Gordon courthouses are still standing in Bexar, Comal, Ellis, Erath, Fayette, Gonzales, Harrison, Hopkins, Lee, McLennan, Victoria, and Wise counties. Ten are still serving their original purpose.
Gordon's design at Lufkin included a clock in the dome structure. But when Angelina County's new, box-like courthouse was dedicated in 1955, it lacked an outside clock.
Bowing to public pressure, the commissioners court had the builder place a $1,400 modernistic, numberless clock on the front of the boxy, new courthouse, but it was hidden by a large oak tree--which the county proposed to cut down.

But, again, the public spoke out and in a newspaper poll, a 693-194 majority decided to keep the tree. So the new clock remained shrouded by the tree until a ladies' beautification group decided to trim the trees in 1966. When the limbs came down, the courthouse clock was visible for the first time in years. But its belated victory was a hollow one. The clock hadn't worked at all in ten years.

Today, in a touch of irony, the tree is dying -- and the clock is working.

Our "YOU REALLY F'ed UP" award has to go to the 1950's Angelina County commissioners. Topping last year's Britney Spears.

One of the unique features of Wharton County's Court House is the eternal flame that burns at their war memorial. Though this would have been ideal for a night shot, we had lots of road to travel and decided to move on.
It was a beautiful structure though and made for some nice shots. Click the image for more.

We got into Karnes County (The county seat is Karnes City, which is fifty-two miles southeast of San Antonio) late and the sun was setting. We didn't do much sight seeeing but did get some good night shots of the courthouse.

This post will not only cover the beauty of the architecture of this old city but special attention should be given to the old jail.
We walked in to what was considered a museum of sorts and sauntered through a couple of cells on the first floor.
We found the cell that housed the jailer which had the comforts of home. Another cell was for women prisoners and yet another bleak solitary confinement cell.
Through out were pictures and news paper clippings dedicated to Texas law men. There were artifacts of a long gone time when justice was born.
We next climbed the steps to the general population and an eerie feeling came over both of us. Maybe it was just the dank structure, the low light, hard steel, and rust. Maybe.
We turned to the right and entered the cell block. It was a two tiered, steel bar and plate enclosure and I tried to make light of it. Nope, not a time for joviality.
There was not enough to keep us there for long so we went back out to the main room. When we rounded the corner, the eeriness we had felt, struck home. There in front of us was a two story, 13 step gallows.
Confronted with this, I had to take time to stand on the trap door but the effect of the place was so haunting, we left soon enough.

The rest of the town was American pie!
Civil War monuments, old fire houses, downtown theater, and turn of the century buildings.
Click on the courthouse picture at top for more pictures. Pay special attention to the Jail.

Click image for more pictures from Bee County.
Bee County is in the Rio Grande plain of south central Texas, fifty miles northwest of Corpus Christi and 146 miles southeast of Austin. It is bordered on the north by Karnes and Goliad counties, on the east by Refugio County, on the south by San Patricio County, and on the west by Live Oak County. Beeville is the county's largest town and seat of government.
Bee County covers 866 square miles that slope gently to the coast. The elevation ranges from 200 to 300 feet.Most of the area is in the South Texas Plains vegetation region, characterized by open grasslands and scattered shrubs and cacti. Buffalo, antelopes, deer, bears, panthers, and wolves once roamed the region; early records indicate that the area also supported wildcats, coyotes, and jackrabbits. Many small mammals are currently found in the county, including foxes, squirrels, opossums, mice, rats, gophers, skunks, moles, and bats.
Bee County has been the site of human habitation for several thousand years. Artifacts recovered in the region suggest that the earliest human inhabitants arrived around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago and camped along the creek valleys. At the time of the first contact with Europeans, various Karankawa bands inhabited the eastern part of the future county, while Lipan Apaches and Borrados roamed the northwest and southwest sections. The Skidi Pawnees left arrowheads in Sulphur Creek near the site of present Pawnee.