Why green?

Things have slowed down a little here on the restoration.  Still movement but we must be sorta between phases but it's about to get real busy.

Some of the workers on the windows and the stonemasons are still working.  Nearly all of the windows and the east door have their first coat of paint.  The stonemasons have been cleaning out some of the joints around the limestone getting ready to replace and renew that mortar.

I asked today that the old DPS radio antennae be taken down off the top of the courthouse to help finish the restoration of the original lines there.

Next week the roofers will be here to start their work.  So go ahead and get ready for the monsoons.  Once we start that it will probably rain for a month.  Seems they are planning ahead on that.  They will only take the old roof off and replace it half at a time.  This should keep us from having more leakage than we have now when it rains.  Work there should take a couple of weeks we are told once they start.  The roof drains will be put back in operation and then the sidewalks repaired.

Have you seen the pieces of sidewalk that they took up!!!  Most sidewalks today at best are about 4" thick.  The pieces removed must be at least double that.  The concrete, too, is a little richer blend somehow so much, much harder to cut through.

We will be seeing the replacement of all broken window glass next week and the second coat of paint will be going on the window trim.

The first set of spandrels should be back and they will start putting them back up.  I am thinking this change may be pretty dramatic.  Now, "dramatic" is not something we see a lot of in Jack County.  I can't wait.

Next week we begin seeing the "honing" process begin to smooth up the face of the limestone panels.  I am sorry to say that will probably make lots of dust but we will be trying to keep up so we can track as little as possible into the building.

We're sorry for any inconveniece to you trying to gain entrance at this time.  Sometimes we go in one door and have to leave by another as they move from spot to spot to do there work during the day.  We appreciate your patience.

Now why green?

Some of this is factual and some of it is purely supposition on my part.  But hopefully, at least, reasonable supposition.

First the factual part.  Tom Clark our project window expert worked on one of the basement windows underneath one of my windows all of one day to gradually remove layer by layer of the paint on the window frame.  When he got to the metal, he picked another spot and stopped at the last layer.  The paint that was there is the color that we have done our best to replicate in the color being applied.  But why green then?

This is the supposing and speculative part.

I am of the opinon that the architects, Voelcker & Dixon, were trying to trick the viewer's minds eye into seeing the view before him or her in three dimensions.

I have always seen the strangely fluted sections of the limestone on the east elevation and wondered at them.  If you look closely, you will see other places inside the building in marble, in plaster, and in wood where those seem to reoccur.

Then one day after I had been reading some on Art Moderne architecture it hit me and I recalled the photos I had seen of some of the ruins of Greek and Roman buildings which I know you have seen, too.  The one following is the beautiful Parthanon in Athens, Greece.

Then I saw some of the old photos of our building and I realized that the sculpted horizontal series of limestone panels may have been meant to remind the viewer of those great pillars of stone in those buildings.  Much like even the columns that are in the Lincoln Memorial in our nation's capitol or other national buildings.

The last thing had gone unnoticed by me until recently when I was putting some slides together for a Power Point that I did for our CH folks right before we started.  It was this picture chosen that really made me think I was seeing what the architects wanted us to see when we looked at the building.  The photo on the old postcard was one of several but not one that had ever even scanned or studied.  I theorize that the architect who designed our courhouse used the color of the marble spandrels and the paint on the window trim to make them disappear or at least turn into dark strips against the sunlit limestone columsn.  Look at the photo below and then look at the photo above and I think you will see.

The marble is a dark, dark blackish green; almost black.

I think you will see the illusion of depth in the vertical strip of the windows and the marble as though we are  looking into the shadows beyond and between the great pillars that set off the front of our beloved building.  The photo makes me think I am seeing what I see above in the other photo here or others like it.  It will be interesting to see if that is borne out in what we will soon see on the west elevation.

All for now.

Help me find some more photos to add to my collection but 2 things I do not have but would love to have are copies of the present day courthouse under construction and color photos of it in earlier times and especially in the early years after it was completed.

If you've got one or know where I can get one for a bit please let me know, I don't have to have it very long to scan me a copy and get it back to you.

Next:  "Where did Justice go?"

Sign up for the Jack County Notification System at http://www.jackcounty.org/ (bottom button on the lower left edge).

A beginning

We will try this a while and see how bad I mess it up.

This is being done to try to give folks an idea on background and status of the repairs and renovations presently being done on the Jack County Courthouse in Jacksboro, Texas.

As you probably know if you are here, I am currently serving as the County Judge in our county.

Courthouses have always held a special place in my heart.  Being an attorney has a lot to do with that.  The one here is especially dear.  When I saw it first in 1968, I thought to myself how much it looked like the Courthouse in Midland County where I grew up.  Later I discovered that there was a very good reason for that.  They were both designed by the architectural firm of Voelcker & Dixon of Wichita Falls; but more on them later.

Our courthouse was begun in 1939 and construction on it was finished in the Spring of 1940 which makes her 71 years old.  The courthouse is built on the town square that was initially vacant and is the third courthouse built at this location.

In the past 30 years or so there has been little done to preserve its original design and in some instances actions have even been taken to alter her original design.  Some have been to modernize here such as the adding of air conditioning to replace the old fans and the change out of some of the light fixtures inside which has made a much brighter work environment.

The County has applied a couple of times for Texas Historical Commission restoration grants but have narrowly missed.  Apparently we were still in pretty good shape and close to its original design so we did not score points well in these areas.

The primary current problems are relative to water leakage in and around our windows and through the roof.  Those have not been major problems now for several months because it has not rained.  But it will again.

Often just like in a home repair project you find that one thing leads to another and thus in trying to cure our water issues, the County has decided to address those problems evident on the courthouse's exterior and in doing so replace the roof, repair and paint the exterior of the windows, remove and restore the marble spandrels, replace the spandrels' support system, repair some the mortar in stone seams, and clean the stained limestone exterior.

"Spandrels?"  What are those?  Here, that term is applied to what you now see as gray panels between the upper floors of the courthouse.  You have probably seen them for years but did not know that they are actually large panels of beautiful marble.  They are a dark color of green with a large dose of black and are veined by cream colored streaks.  They were painted in 1984 by action of the Commissioners Court to attempt to seal them as they were cracking.  It is believed now that the cracking was caused by shifting of the panels as a result of the rusting of the iron supports that could not be seen with the panels in place.

About half of the panels have now been removed and taken to Tyler where they will be stripped, strengthened if necessary, and brought back placed back in position while the others will then be removed and also restored.

You now see scaffolding and lifts that are being used by the stone masons and those restoring the exterior of the windows.

To restore the windows, you have to ask yourself the question "restore to what?"  The window workers carefully removed the paint on the window trim in onw place to determine the original paint color.

The windows are being scrapped and painted with a blackish green paint that will blend into the color of the marble panels.  I will address that color schematic in my next posting.

Hope you enjoy this little blog.  Let me know what you think.