Lamar County Courthouse
Paris, Lamar County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The March 1916 fire that left downtown Paris in ruins ravaged Lamar County's massive 1897 Romanesque courthouse and tower, once thought indestructible. On April 20, 1916, the Lamar County Commissioners Court chose local designers and builders William G. Barry, Edwin R. Smith and Elmer George Withers to work with the Fort Worth architectural firm of Sanguinet & Staats to design a new courthouse. The county judge and commissioners court and Carl G. Staats reviewed the designs of several courthouses around the state. Some Paris residents requested that the new courthouse be built in the center of its lot in keeping with the city's plans for wide roads at the town square, but the court decided that it would be more efficient to build the new structure upon the same foundation as the old courthouse. The upper ruins of the old courthouse were dismantled by July 1916. In late August the commissioners chose J. C. Buchanan and J. N. Gilder of Fort Worth, who did significant work in rebuilding Paris after the fire, to serve as contractors. Construction began in September. By that time the restoration and renovation of several other buildings around the square was nearing completion, and downtown Paris took on a modern appearance. Completed by November 1917, the new courthouse was built of fireproof concrete covered by rough pink granite salvaged from the 1897 building. Distinctive features of the imposing Classical edifice include corner pavilions and engaged granite columns and the Classical cornice with matching terra cotta ornament (notably eagles and medallions). Marked by triple-arched porticos, the primary entrances echo the Romanesque style of the original structure. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2000
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The great fire of March 1916 gutted Lamar County's massive 1897 Romanesque courthouse, once believed indestructible. Within weeks the commissioners hired local builders alongside the Fort Worth firm of Sanguinet & Staats, and by late 1917 a new fireproof concrete courthouse rose on the old foundation, sheathed in rough pink granite salvaged from the ruins. Its Classical design — corner pavilions, engaged columns, terra-cotta eagles, and triple-arched entries — anchored a downtown rebuilt in modern form.
Why it matters
Rising from the ashes of a catastrophic fire, the courthouse stands for how American communities rebuilt their civic hearts with even greater permanence after disaster.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In March 1916, a fire swept through downtown Paris and left the heart of the city in ruins. Among its casualties was Lamar County's great 1897 courthouse, a massive Romanesque building with a tower that people had once thought all but indestructible. In a single disaster, the county lost the very symbol of its permanence.
The moment came at a hinge in American building history. Communities were moving away from ornate masonry piles toward structures designed, above all, not to burn. Fireproof concrete and steel were becoming the language of the modern civic building, and a county rebuilding from ashes had every reason to speak it.
So the destruction, terrible as it was, also opened a question that towns across the country were facing in these years: when you rebuild your civic heart, do you simply restore what was lost, or do you build something more permanent in its place?
People & events
Lamar County did not wait long to answer. On April 20, 1916 — barely weeks after the fire — the Commissioners Court chose local designers and builders William G. Barry, Edwin R. Smith, and Elmer George Withers to work alongside the Fort Worth architectural firm of Sanguinet and Staats. The county judge, the commissioners, and Carl G. Staats studied the designs of courthouses around the state before settling on their own.
There was a genuine debate about where the new building should stand. Some Paris residents wanted it placed in the center of its lot, in keeping with the city's plans for wide roads around the square. But the court decided it would be more efficient to rebuild on the old courthouse's own foundation. By July the upper ruins of the 1897 building had been dismantled.
In late August the commissioners hired contractors J. C. Buchanan and J. N. Gilder of Fort Worth, who were already doing significant work rebuilding Paris after the fire. Construction began in September, and the new courthouse was completed by November 1917 — a remarkably quick turn for a building of its size and ambition.
Its place in the American story
What makes this courthouse worth pausing over is how literally it carries its own history. It rose on the same foundation as the building the fire destroyed, and it was sheathed in rough pink granite salvaged from the 1897 ruins. The new courthouse quite literally wears the old one.
It also captures a broader American impulse: to rebuild after catastrophe not as things were, but stronger. Built of fireproof concrete, the new courthouse answered the fire directly, while its Classical design — corner pavilions, engaged granite columns, a cornice with terra-cotta ornament — announced a town that meant to endure. Even so, the triple-arched entrances deliberately echo the Romanesque style of the lost building, a gesture of memory folded into a modern form.
Courthouses like this one anchored the American county seat, and their rebuilding after disaster is a recurring chapter in the national story. This one earned recognition as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2000, a mark of just how much of that story it still holds.
If you visit
Stand back first and take in the whole imposing front, then come close and read it like a record of two buildings. Look at the rough pink granite — that stone was quarried for a courthouse that burned, then lifted from the ruins and set again here. Few materials in any town have lived two lives so plainly.
Look for the details the record singles out: the corner pavilions, the engaged granite columns, the Classical cornice with its matching terra-cotta ornament, including eagles and medallions. Then find the triple-arched porticos at the main entrances, and notice how those arches quietly recall the Romanesque courthouse that stood on this same ground before 1916.
The courthouse sits at the center of Paris's historic square, so it makes a natural heart for a walk through downtown. As you circle it, remember that the streets and buildings around you were largely rebuilt in the same few years — you are standing in a civic center that rose, almost all at once, out of a single fire.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Sanguinet & Staats
Related events
- · Paris Fire of 1916
Themes & tags
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