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Menard County Courthouse

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1932, Withers and Thompson; 2006 rehabilitated, Wagner and Kelin Architects. 206 E. San Saba Ave.

The Menard County Courthouse, a symmetrical composition in rough-textured buff brick with setback massing, has a central four-story block with three- and two-story extensions and a one-story central entrance bay. All the forms are articulated by pilasters of cast stone and inset sculptural panels of Mayan influence. Elmer G. Withers of the Fort Worth firm of Withers and Thompson designed the building in a scheme similar to his Upshur County Courthouse (1933). The courthouse is situated at the south end of the courthouse square, a two-block area that is bisected by the acequia, known as the Menard Ditch (SS35). The courthouse was rehabilitated with funding from the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.

Facing the square on the east at Canal Street, the simple, wooden, former First Christian Church (1905) stands abandoned. A central tower, with an octagonal shingled spire, projects from the front gable, and the lateral walls of the nave are angled back, creating deep triangular soffits under the gable. The effect is dynamically vertical.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Menard County Courthouse", [Menard, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-SS34.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 419-420.

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