Old Red Courthouse
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Designated as public land in John Neely Bryan's 1844 city plat, this was the site of a log courthouse built after Dallas County was created in 1846. When Dallas won election as permanent county seat in 1850, Bryan deeded the property to the county, and a larger log structure was erected. In 1856 county offices occupied a 2-story brick edifice, rebuilt in 1860 after a fire that almost destroyed the city. The fourth courthouse, a 2-story granite structure erected in 1871, survived one fire in 1880 before it burned again in 1890. The Old Red Courthouse, the fifth seat of county government, was begun in 1890 and completed in 1892. Designed by Architect M. A. Orlopp, it exemplifies the Romanesque Revival style with its massive scale and rounded arches. The blue granite of the lower floor and window trim contrasts with the red sandstone of the upper stories. Eight circular turrets dominate the design. A clock tower with a 4500-pound bell originally topped the building, but it was removed in 1919. Two of the four clay figures perched on the roof have also been removed. To house the expanding county government, a new courthouse was built in 1965. Some offices remained in the 1890 structure, which was renovated in 1968. RTHL - 1977
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This site has anchored Dallas County government since the log courthouse that followed the county's creation in 1846, replaced over the decades by ever-grander structures as fire after fire took its predecessors. The fifth of them, completed in 1892, is the Romanesque Revival landmark still known as the Old Red Courthouse — a massive pile of blue granite and red sandstone bristling with turrets, once crowned by a clock tower and a heavy bell.
Why it matters
The building's layered history mirrors Dallas's growth from a frontier river crossing into a major American city, all on one square of ground set aside at its founding.
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Related people
- · John Neely Bryan
- · M. A. Orlopp
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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At the "Three Forks" of the Trinity River, colonists of the Peters Colony began arriving after 1841, drawn by land grants that required them to farm a few acres and raise "a good and comfortable cabin." The surrounding forests of oak, cedar, walnut, and bois d'arc supplied the timber, and John Neely Bryan's 1842 cabin marked the beginnings of Dallas. Within a decade milled lumber and brick were replacing logs, and an 1860 fire swept away most of the town's original cabins.
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The Republic of Texas designated a post office at the unincorporated town of Dallas in 1843, and three years later the first Texas Legislature created Dallas County from parts of Robertson and Nacogdoches counties. Both city and county honor George Mifflin Dallas, the Pennsylvania statesman elected eleventh vice president of the United States on a platform that favored annexing Texas. His name thus binds this North Texas crossroads directly to the national politics that brought Texas into the Union.
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Alexander Cockrell arrived in the Dallas area in 1845, fought in the war with Mexico, and by 1852 had bought the remainder of the townsite from Dallas's founder, John Neely Bryan, building brickyards, a sawmill, and a Trinity River bridge. When he was killed over a debt in 1858, his wife Sarah Horton Cockrell took the reins, finishing the St. Nicholas Hotel, running the ferry, and adding a flour mill — becoming the first woman in Dallas to wield real economic power.
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