The Courthouse That Sagged

James Riely Gordon designed this courthouse in 1897 and it was finished in 1899, one of the last of the Texas courthouses that made his name. It is Romanesque Revival, banded in Texas Cordova creme limestone against deep red brick, a bolder use of colour than his Comal County courthouse of the year before, which is the same design executed entirely in pale stone. His signature curved corner entrances bridge the arms of a cross shaped plan, and inside he did something found in none of his others: the jury sits facing the judge with its back to the spectators. It began failing almost immediately. Within two years two columns had to be added inside the courtroom, the slate roof was replaced with lighter metal shingles and the plaster ceiling with tin. The damage was undone a century later. A restoration completed in 2004 stripped back white paint applied in 1911 and found the original interior colours underneath, yellow and grey and blue and mauve, and the architects put the courtroom furniture back according to Gordon's own plan. Lee County was cut on the second of May 1874 out of Burleson, Washington, Bastrop and Fayette, and named for Robert E. Lee after a citizens' meeting the previous year. Giddings beat Lexington for the county seat primarily because it was the railroad town. The town's own name is less settled than it looks: it is usually said to honour Jabez Deming Giddings, who held stock in that railroad, though some sources name his younger brother and junior law partner Dewitt, who went to Congress.