Description & History of the 1910 Harris County Courthouse

The 1910 Harris County Courthouse is one of the most significant historical buildings in Houston and is considered by some as one of the most significant historic courthouses in Texas. It is a classical domed building designed by a Dallas firm Lang and Wetchel. The firm was owned by Otto H. Lang and Frank O. Wetchel. They also designed two other Texas courthouses one the Cook County Courthouse in Gainesville and the other the Johnson County Courthouse in Cleburne Texas. The firm was a large, prolific and well respected firm located in Dallas at the turn of the century.

Otto Lang was born in Germany and trained as a structural engineer. Frank Wetchel, born in South Wales and completed his apprenticeship at the architectural firm Sanguinet and Staats alongside another famous Texas Architect, J. Reiley Gordon. However these two men were destined to play a back roll to one of their employees; Charles Erwin Barglebaugh, who trained with Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park and was a graduate of the Chicago School of Architecture.

The Six story building located in downtown Houston at the square outlined by Fannin, Congress, San Jacinto and Preston streets is a massive stone building complete with colonnades on each side. But in my option its true beauty lies almost in ruins inside the building.

The building had a marble lined center rotunda open from the first floor to the top of the building with massive plaster column capitals at the top and a skylight in the center. Around the rotunda at each level is a walkway that had plaster crown moldings and capitals. Unfortunately in the 1950's it was remodeled and the center opening was filled in at each floor. The remodeling caused massive damage to the plaster elements at each floor and especially at the top of the rotunda.

Most of the plaster elements in the building have at least one good piece that can be used to make a mold and cast the missing elements. However the center capitals at the top of the rotunda have the center missing at each one. Photos were solicited from every possible venue and some of the original drawings are available. It is going to be a monumental task to recreate these capitals. But we here at Professio are all about challenges.

The project also benefits from the experience of a historical architect Susan with Architexas in Austin who has diligently worked for several years trying to correctly identify the elements and create drawings to show the supposed design. Architexas is the largest preservation architectural firm in the state of Texas. The project also has the benefit of another very large architectural firm of PGAL who brings a nationwide expertise of courthouse construction and restoration to the mix. All of who have spent endless hours diligently researching this wonderful building.

When you look at the plaster ornamentation you can immediately see the influence of Louis Sullivan. Sullivan was very influential in the Chicago School of Architecture and taught Frank Lloyd Wright and as thus on to Charles Erwin Barglebaugh. Sullivan's designs were used all over the world. They are very identifiable because they are so complex and symbolic. The Art Institute's 2007 exhibition of Sullivan's ornamental designs reads "The drawings on view in this exhibition provide a rare glimpse of Sullivan's interpretation of the philosophical principles of ornament and its relationship to architecture and the natural world. Through the use of ornament, Sullivan believed, the architect could establish an organic connection linking the practical and rational aspects of building design and demonstrating the underlying similarities between the simple geometries of science and the curvilinear configurations of nature.." His use of stretched objects and complicated geometric designs stand out even today. Because of the ornamental plaster and terra cotta shops located in Chicago his designs ultimately were used all over the world in buildings that he had nothing to do with.

This is the second job where I have had to study Sullivan's designs. I was commissioned to recreate the courtroom in Brownsville Texas where most of the elements were missing. Only an old fuzzy photograph from the archives at the University of Texas shows the missing capitals. The photo was in focus on the subject that was in the center of the room unfortunately the column capitals were along the sides of the room and not part of the field of focus. This courthouse was designed my Altee B.Ayress. Mr. Ayress had also hired a designer George Rodney Willis that had worked with Frank Lloyd Wright. All the remaining plaster elements showed the same Sullivanistic style.

We are set to start recreating the elements in the near future. Drawings are now in progress, Rubber molds are being made of some of the elements that were removed and Matt Henson Sr. is scheduled to start making molds of the remaining elements on site soon. We will try and keep those of you who are interested in the progress of this challenging project abreast of the developments and progress photos will be uploaded to this site for your enjoyment.