Houston and Commerce Sts., Dallas, Texas. County/parish: Dallas.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places December 12, 1976. NRIS 76002019.
1 contributing building.
The Dallas County Courthouse, built in 1892 of red sandstone with rusticated marble accents, is a historic governmental building located at 100 South Houston Street in Dallas, Texas. Four of five previous courthouse structures were destroyed by fire. Also known as the Old Red Courthouse, it became the Old Red Museum, a local history museum, in 2007. In 2021, it was announced that the Old Red Museum would be moving out and the building is being returned into a hall of justice. The Texas Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is moving into Old Red (2024).
It was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture by architect Max A. Orlopp, Jr. of the Little Rock, Arkansas based firm Orlopp & Kusener. Four of five previous courthouse structures were destroyed by fire, which is one reason why the building was constructed using masonry and cubic stone. In 1904, well-known prohibition activist Carrie Nation attracted a crowd that overflowed into the hallways for a lecture on temperance. Carrie Nation
In 1904, the famed prohibition activist Carrie Nation gave a fiery lecture inside one of the courthouse’s courtrooms.
In 1910, the courthouse was the site of the lynching of Allen Brooks. President John F. Kennedy's motorcade passed the courthouse minutes before his assassination on November 22, 1963.
The building's signature clock tower stood at 123 feet tall and featured a two-ton bell. In 1919, it was removed because it was structurally unstable. The void where the clock tower was would remain for nearly a century until it was rebuilt as part of a major renovation project in 2007.
In 1935, Sarah T. Hughes was sworn in as the first female judge in Texas.
In 1966, the courthouse was replaced by a newer building nearby. On December 12, 1976, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2005–2007 the building was renovated.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971649