Cherokee County Courthouse, Rusk, Texas. (original) (raw)
Cherokee County Courthouse
Photo courtesy Terry Jeanson, July 2007
The Present Cherokee County Courthouse
Date - 1941
Architect - Gill and Bennett, Inc.
Style - Moderne
Material - stone
Annex built in 1955
Cherokee County Courthouse as it appeared in 1941
Photo courtesy TXDoT
A later view of the Cherokee County Courthouse
Photo courtesy texasoldphotos.com
Photographer's Note:
"About five or six years ago, a Cherokee County inmate was enlisted to create a mural of the history of Cherokee County on the upper floor of the courthouse. The mural extends from the east to the west side of the building and is, mostly, in chronological order. The ground floor also contains portraits of famous Texans, famous Cherokee County residents and local heroes..."
The 1889 Cherokee County Courthouse
"In 1921, Civil War Veterans gathered for this photograph opportunity outside the third courthouse building... The building was used from 1890 until 1926, when an office addition was built on the north side."
Courtesy Arcadia Publishing & Cherokee Co Hist Commission
"This photo of the 1889 Cherokee County courthouse hangs in the first floor hallway of the current courthouse."
- Terry Jeanson, July 2007 photo
Photographer's Note:
"The caption below the picture reads as follows:
THIRD COURTHOUSE - Cherokee County's third courthouse, a brick one with clock tower, was completed in 1889 on the same site as all previous and later ones. Photo shows the remodeling work underway with part of the clock tower removed. The many-gabled roof was also changed to a flat one in this remodeling work. Note the many chimneys in this building required for stoves in the offices on all floors and the courtroom in the center of the building. Central heat and air-conditioning were not invented when this photo was taken. Note that the soldier in the monument to Cherokee County's Civil War soldiers was holding a full-barreled rifle, but in later remodeling, the rifle barrel was broken. The barrel pieces were lost in the courthouse, so it has never been repaired and is one of the few of this era lacking a complete rifle for the veteran.
Photo from Cherokee County Historical Commission Archives."
"This photo of the remodeled 1889 Cherokee County courthouse hangs in the first floor hallway of the current courthouse."
- Terry Jeanson, July 2007
Photographer's Note:
"The caption below it reads as follows:
COUNTY COURTHOUSE - Cherokee County's Courthouse, Rusk, as it appeared after one of several remodelings and updatings from the days of the log structure erected on the same site in 1847 after Cherokee County was carved out of old Nacogdoches County by order of the Texas Legislature on April 11, 1846. This remodeling project removed the steeple and clock from the structure. The building was stuccoed also but retained four entrances. The monument to the county's Civil War veterans was dedicated Nov. 11, 1921, after a county-wide fund-raising covered the cost. It remains the only monument to Civil War veterans in the county, a county which provided more than 2,000 men for the South in that war. The monument was moved to its present spot a short distance away in another courthouse remodeling project. This courthouse has always been called the "1926 courthouse" because the work was finished in that year.
Photo from Cherokee County Historical Commission Archives."