Finally!

Been way more than a week, I know, but it's just that time of year:  budget time.  At any rate, the budget is finally finished and so I am gonna renew my effort here with this update.

We've seen a lot of change since our last post.

They are still doing some honing.  Some of the stain, mostly on the north elevation, was more stubborn and harder to remove; deeper.  So the masons had to work a little harder to get it all gone.  They are still working.

The roof is done and it has not leaked yet. All of the roof drains were partially plugged and the water that was not coming out of the drains was apparently coming out in the line elbows at the base of the building.  This work was probably done in the early 1990's when we had a company supposedly who supposedly cleared the drains when they did some work on the roof.  The one they brought me had a hole in the top the size of a ping pong ball.  If they were all the same, it would explain why the water was disappearing in the testing.

Perhaps someday it will rain and we can give it a good test.

The refurbished spandrels began to arrive week before last and now all of the ones on the south elevation are restored and some on the east and west elevations.  The marble panels are beautiful!  Here let me show you.

This one gives a pretty good peek at what we can see of her when all the work is finished.  But that visions is still blurred a lot by the dust and the dirty windows and debris on the ground.

We have been given word that the new stone for the two top courses that were removed will begin arriving this week.  The first course actually.

In furtherance of my theory that the architect was trying to achieve the Greco-Roman temple look you will note in the photo last above the 5 gray panels at the top of the windows.  They were painted gray to match the painted marble panels.  They are "obscure" glass as mentioned before.  We are looking at painting a piece of masonite the same color as the window jams or plain black to then cover them with unpainted obscure glass.  Obscure here means you cannot really see through it.  The color will come through however and so the entire windows, spandrels, and the little glass panels will appear dark at a distance.

We did discover one oddity which may shed some light on why the panels were painted.  The workers continue to remove the marble panels for cleaning and in doing so last week we discovered that one of them is not marble but actually a concrete slab.  Apparently one of them had cracked so bad that it was replaced in its entirety.  Hmmmm???  I wonder where the other one went?  These stone guys are good!!!  A couple of weeks ago some of the panels came off in small pieces but they are putting them together like a jigsaw puzzle.  When finished, I doubt that we will be able to tell.

 

I told you I would tell you about the Courthouse's first guardian and that I will.

He was a native son and was elected to serve two terms as the County Judge.  His first term began in 1913 and his second term in 1937.  He was an attorney by training.

He was John P. Simpson.  More next time.

Spandrels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New things this week and some more of the same seems to be the order of things.

[I thought this one had been posted but disovered tonight while trying to finish the next one that it had not.  I will post it and finish the other]

Roof & Stone

The dripping seems to have stopped but we still have blowers and humidifiers stored with us and we had a jury trial in the District Court that took most of the week.  It may be that they put some of that back out to dry things out a little more.

There is still a little smell that you notice when you first walk in but things are much improved.

The roofer is making headway on finishing the roof and their is now rain in the forecast toward the end of next week.

They tested the drains this week to see if they were draining.  We were concerned about one from the beginning.  Tests results may indicate we have more problems than just with the one.  Short version:  they pressured up something like a balloon in them to load the pipe with water and the water did not fill the pipe but no leaks found.. They don't know where the water went.  Into a parallel dimension hopefully!

The first round of the honing continues.  It has gone well but there are some spots in which the staining is deeper than others.  They are re-working those spots to go a little deeper.

Spandrels

They have taken down some more of the marble panels and we now have two back up which are located on the south elevation.  They are beautiful as you can see.  Notice now the blended color from the metal window frame.  It is a good match, I think.  These are in the same exact position from which they were removed.

Not all of their removal is easy.  Many of them are in more that one piece when they come down.  Each spandrell has a specific number in the scheme and each piece is then numbered and lettered to identify it.  I have a number of photos on pieces in 5 gallon buckets.  Here's a close up of one that was in pretty bad shape and then a couple of pics of another in pieces (note they are numbered and tagged for restoration).






I told you I would tell you about the Courhouse's first guardian and I will but will do it in next segment.

Drip, Drip. Drip

It's Sunday afternoon and no it's not midweek but I wanted to post a non-blog event if there is such a thing.

I predicted it would rain and it did.

The roofer started on Thursday and intended to work on Saturday and Sunday to work on what was supposed to be a 2 week part of the overall project.

Our little dog is afraid of thunder and lightening and just goes ballistic when it does.  In the night early Saturday morning, I heard her trying to dig her way through the utility room door.  As I went to let her out, I had not heard it thunder and I could hear no rain.  I was somewhere between awake and asleep as I walked down the hall.  I never heard it rain.  But it did.

Saturday morning the Sheriff called to tell me it had rained about an inch and had flooded the Courthouse.  I admit it was 8:30 and I had not quite stirred yet.

Now how does this work?  It only rained about an inch but there had to have been 3 or 4 inches that got into the Courthouse.

It just gradually worked its way through the building.  The old jail floor was awash everywhere.  In the law library, you could not see the carpet.  It was dripping through all of the ceilings from the light fixtures and the District Courtroom had a good 1/4" of water in it.

I think the old girl had about a 15 degree list to her by the time I got there.

The Project Manager got here about 6:30 a.m. and got recovery crews from Fort Worth in route.

It seems that the roofing crew had stripped off all of the roof we had and so it was open to the concrete deck.  If you recall, they were only supposed to take off as much each day as they could replace that same day.

When I got here, people were vaccuuming water up everywhere and even the roofer was here looking kinda hang dog and trying not to make eye contact with me or the Project Manager as I was briefed on the situation. 
We called the Department heads to come do a damage report and protect their records.  I called the Commissioners and posted a handwritten agenda for an Emergency Meeting at 12:45.  The handwritten agenda is probably the first one in the history of the Open Meetings Act in Jack County.  I had to do it in a hurry and it's scratched up pretty good.  I hate to think that a 100 years from now that someone will look at it and say, "heh, Edna, come look at this!"  I even mispelled "roof."

The Court met.  I briefed the members on what I knew and the Project Manger was given the floor.  I do not think we took any action; just heard the story and how the PM was going to respond.  But you see I would not know much past my part because I had to leave.

I had a wedding to perform at 1 o'clock.  It was gonna be in the County Courtroom and it had buckets and the Commissioners were all there and they sure weren't dressed for a wedding.  At 1 o'clock, the bride's mother who I had talked to earlier in the morning called to see if I was close to getting there as I had moved it to a local church for which I just happened to have a key.  I told her I was on the way.

I grabbed up my judge's robe and headed out the door.  I was determined that nothing was going to spoil the day for that young bride and her family!!!  I couldn't get to where I could print a copy of my text for the ceremony so I did it for the first time "without a net."  I told them and we were all pleased with the outcome.  Bless those children!  Certainly, I will never forget their wedding day.

The Recovery people have been here all day and night and will be with us till at least tomorrow.  They have machines and gadgets that pumped water and then have blown dry air everywhere and even a couple of things that draw moisture out of the air (we have plenty to work with) and push the water through little plastic lines that empty their product into sinks.

As bad as it is, it's not as bad as it could have been.  Looks like all electronics and permanent records are okay.  We had some boxes of stored records that got wet and so we are not sure what their status is.  I think we bought all of the plastic sheeting and blue tarps that the hardware store and lumber yard had to sell.

Now they have to find another roofer and not sure yet when he will be here.  We have a jury trial starting  Tuesday morning in the District Courtroom.  But it did rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But Jack County people are a scrappy lot!  We ain't gonna let no little thing like this get us down.  We'll just cinch it up, hunker down, and take a new direction.

A friend gave me this in a hard time and I look at it once and again.  Now might be another good time.  I think the fellow underneath is an old county judge.

Now, please join me in a word of prayer.  Lord, I've lived in Texas all my life and I know it is a down right sin to pray against rain and I'm not gonna start now but if you take suggestions I might offer one.  It would sure work a whole lot better for some of us here in Jack County if you could just delay it for a couple of weeks.  But if you want it to rain, we need it desperately and you just send it.  We'll just deal with it.  Amen.

Oh, and we really are grateful for the rain.  We never loose sight of the fact that it, like all of our blessings, come from you.

The Old and the New

Whack, whack!  Bang Bang, Griiiiiind, griiiiind! whump!

Today it was like sitting in a dentist's office hearing him drill on a tooth all day.

That's pretty much what it has been this week.

Good evening, all.

All week I have been keenly aware of the white, powdery dust on everything.  All of them are alike in texture; part pulverized lawn and part powdered limestone.  We have had some nice compliments over the years on our lawn.  Our grass has always been a thick, lush carpet.

But that is about gone for a while.  I am going to ask that we begin to water our roses and see if we can get the weeds out of the sand area between the curb and the sidewalk.

Things are busy this week though some of the things that I had hoped would manifest themselves have not.  Still there is progress.

Workers have completed the removal of the cap stones and the honing crews are busy now every day.  The honing crews are smoothing the face of the limestone panels taking off the pittings and damage from the sandblasting as well as the staining and oxidization of 70 years.

The difference is pretty astounding when can see what we have seen now for so long that we don't think about it anymore and then right beside it is the bright white of the "new" stone.

A good portion of the South elevation and the West elevation have been done and most of the ground level panels are complete.



West elevation & photos do not do justice to the contrast


Here are a few shots of the South elevation.



So. Elevation - right half honed





So. Elevation - note fellow working at ground level

 There is a delay in the installation of the spandrels.  They are not likely to go up until next week.  They are waiting on some materials in the installation of a moisture barrier before the spandrells are put in place.  Workers continue to remove the other gray panels.

You cannot see it from the ground but the demolition of the old roof has begun.  They are taking it down to the concrete decking.  Now watch it rain.  Here is a spot where they were working.

Heh, it's not all gonna be pretty!

Thursday morning as I sat at the computer I noticed that was a lot of activity going on outside.  As I watched for a moment it was evident that the fellows moving around were part of the roofing crew.  Most of the day one of their lift vehicles was lifting bundles of the roofing material on the roof.  One of them they must have been dropped since as I worked I felt and heard a big ... WHUMP! ... and at least my corner of the building shook a little.  I had not felt that since our little earthquake a few months ago.

Not sure how far they got today but they made a good start as you can see below.  They have Friday as well to work.  This pic gives a pretty good cross section of the new roof.  I think they will come back on top now with another covering.  This roof should increase our R factor for heating and cooling.



The old and the new roof

 As I said earlier, part of our cost of the roof is being paid by a Federal stimulus grant.  Ironic. Ironic in that the courthouse was built under a Federal grant during a financial downturn in our nation's economy.  The purpose of those programs was to stimulate the economy, create jobs, and help put money in circulation.  Today, the SECO grant money was issued under a program designed to do exactly the same thing.

Accurate restoration can test your patience, I guess.  We are waiting on a ruling right now by the Texas Historical Commission to rule on a type of glass that we are going to use to replace broken glass in a number of places.  The glass is called "obscure" and is used in places like restroom windows to assure privacy.  Our windows man had tried unsuccessfully with a number of vendors in Texas and one in New York for a match but has not found one yet.  We are waiting to see if THC will accept the closest match found.  Some of the glass to be replaced is 30 feet in the air so who is going to be able to tell.

From time to time, I have hear people say that they did not like the look of our courthouse.  They thought it was plain and many have openly stated that they wished that we had kept the old one built in 1886.  I was visiting with a friend the other day who said she had never thought of our courthouse as particularily attractive but said lately with the work going on that she was seeing some things about that she really liked.  Someone else told me that we are starting to see that when it was new that it was pretty striking.

Perhaps we are now seeing what she was meant to look like in her beginning.

Most of us see those photos of the 1886 courthouse but we have never read of its failings.  The Commissioners Court in the opening years of the 20th century had iron rods driven into its walls to try to stabilize them because they were separating.  That problem continued to be a concern and was one of the leading reasons for building the current structure.

Your commissioners have really stepped up at this point to take on what they have done.  I hope you will tell them 'thank you' and how pleased you are with what you are seeing. 

We have just received word from the THC about the timeline for the next round of courthouse restoration grants.  When this program first started there was $50 million budgeted by the State for these projects.  A national study had shown that courthouses were some of the most threatened historic structures in our nation.  This 2-year stretch provides only $22 million.  But we, as a people in Jack County, are showing a great interest in our courthouse's restoration and, I believe, our chances are better than in the past to be funded to finish the work.

That deadline for filing is December 1.

Next time I hope we can talk about reinstalled spandrels.

I will also introduce you to our Courthouse's first guardian.

Where did Justice go?

Hello, all!

Still hot but we're still making progress down on the square.

As they told us looks like it is shaping up to be a busy week despite the heat.  Yesterday and today there were several groups of workman.

Monday morning when I arrived the Sheriff and a Deputy had Church Street (East side of the square) blocked off on the north and south ends.  in the middle of the street was a big flat bed 18-wheeler who was off loading large rectangular bundles of what looks like styrofoam material and some other materials that are further roofing supplies.  There was a lot of it.  It took up most of the curbside parking on the east side.  They had not told me about that and I felt sure I would hear about it but later in the day a fork lift manuevered it all into two rows along the curb.  So we still have 1/2 of the stretch of parking anyway.

No roofing crew yet but they should begin this week.  With that the materials will be lifted up then onto the roof.  We will be increasing the R factor with this roof design and be using a SECO (stimulus) grant to help pay for this part of the project.

All day yesterday and today another crew has been working next to the east side of the building and on top in the same area.  There is a man on the ground in some kind of vehicle sorta like a cross between a fork lift and a front end loader.  He sits in a little cage on the side and manuevers it.  There a double arm like a bucket on a front end loader but it has the two teeth on the front like a fork lift.

The crew is removing the capstones along the top of the parapet.

Modern building codes would require that there be a moisture barrier underneath the top course.  The top course is the last layer of stone in this case that sits atop the wall.  Actually there is an inner wall of brick and the layer which in this case is limestone.  It was common in the day that the workman would dispose of their rubble (broken bricks) into the cavity between.

Today there would be some sort of barrier (tar paper at least) to carry the water that might get through the seams between the capstones to the outside.  In the courthouse, it is open all the way down.  So if water gets between the capstones, it goes into the wall.

We have for a long time had water coming from around the windows causing the plaster on our walls to spall.  The plaster gets wet underneath and then pops up like a bubble.  Then it usually dries to a powder and then proceeds to fall off in bits or sometimes in chunks.  You can knock it off and replaster but the same thing happens again.

So these guys are getting ready to try to cure this problem.  They are now removing the course of capstones around the top of the parapet one by one and lifting them to the ground and stacking them.  This is no small feat in and of it self as each one of these weighs about 500 pounds.  The Project Manager tells me they weigh about 100 pounds per linier foot.  I thought they would re-use what they could but apparently not.

Here that crew is at work:

They say the honing crew will be here tomorrow and start smoothing the face of the limestone panels.  A long time ago, the staining on the exterior was removed by sandblasting the face of the stone.  Though it may have been state of art at the time the face of the stones are pitted and wavy.  The process opened the face of the limestone to promote the staining you can now see.  This has to be better for the stone but you always have to still wonder about this state of the art process in several years.  We will still have to periodically clean it in some fashion to preserve the finish.

The spandrels that were cleaned up are on the way back.  Three of them are here and will go up sometime this week.  They are truly beautiful.  Their caretaker has strengthened them and sealed the back of them to protect them from deteriation. 

Here's one of them:

They have stripped off the gray paint, cleaned them up, polished them, and strengthed the reverse.

But where did justice go?

When the 1886 courthouse was torn down in the opening moments of 1939, it occurred at the end of a world wide depression so great that it had its own name.  Experience taught that generation not to throw anything away before you use it or wear it out.  That courthouse was brought down in a matter of moments by bulldozers, I am told, pulling cables wrapped around it.  The stone was recyled and much of it is still in use today.  Some went to build the old City Hall/Fire Stations, some went to the country to build a cabin, some went to build part of the City's water treatment plant on the parade grounds of Fort Richardson, and others to be used as part of other homes.  The bell is still located on the square but what happened to Lady Liberty.

Lady Liberty was often used in 19th century in many places but often on court buildings.  Lady Liberty is a symbol of the Greek and Roman goddess of Justice.
     And thus she stood overlooking the main entrance (south) examining those who entered.  In some instances, she appears blindfolded so she cannot see those before her and in some cases she is not so, it could be said, she can see those who stand before for who they are.  In most instances she holds the Scales of Justice to measure the evidence presented and a sword for the swift administration of her justice.

Somehow when Lady Justice came down off of the uppermost height of the 1886 courthouse, she disappeared.  A number of us have puzzled over her fate through the years.  One woman has told about seeing her later.  She said as a young girl she saw her stored in  the old Commissary Building at Fort Richardson.  She said when she saw she still had what she was told were bullet holes placed there by cowboys on a Saturday night who had a bit too much of ol' Who Hit John.  But from there she disappeared and no one seemed to know where she went.

Several years ago in an article in the newspaper, I was quoted as saying I was still trying to find out what happened to her.  Fast forward a couple of weeks to a Friday night home football game and a fellows says to me, "I read you were looking for Lady Jusice."  I assured him that I was and he told me she went in a scrap drive in WWII.  He was a boy at the time and personnaly saw her on a a scrap there on the square.  So she did her part for the cause perhaps ending up in a bomb or shell casings or the wall of a tank defending our nation.

So now you know, too.

Here she is probably after having been just removed from the 1886 courthouse.   The Scales are gone from her left hand, her right hand still in place to hold the sword gone, and apparently she wore no blindfold.

Till next time.

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.