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Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains and West » East Texas » Tyler to Kilgore » Tyler and Vicinity (Smith County) » Smith County Courthouse

Smith County Courthouse

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1955, Thomas, Jameson and Merrill with E. Davis Wilcox Associates. 100 N. Broadway Ave.

The Dallas-based architects designed the courthouse in a belated and simplified rendition of the setback courthouse form prevalent in the 1930s. A large six-story central block is flanked by two-story blocks, all sheathed in limestone. The central block has a vertical stack of windows outlined by simple stone frames, and the lateral blocks have recessed stacks of vertical windows and spandrels to give a very lean pilaster effect, well proportioned and imposingly austere. The previous classical building (1910, C. H. Page) stood in the center of the two-block square on axis with Broadway. When this courthouse was built on the eastern half of the square, Broadway was cut through, leaving a public park on the western half of the square.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

People’s Petroleum Building (People’s National Bank Building)
U.S. Post Office and Courthouse
Law Office (Smith County Jail, Lewis Hotel)
The Carnegie History Center (Carnegie Public Library)
Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce (Blackstone Building)

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Smith County Courthouse", [Tyler, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-TK1.

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, 59-61.

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