Old United States Post Office and Courts Building (Jefferson, Texas)
Posted by: 
Raven
N 32° 45.339 W 094° 20.767
15S E 373901 N 3625000
Designed by William Ferret and built in 1890, this imposing Romanesque building housed both the U.S. Post Office and US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas from 1890 until 1964.
Waymark Code: WMWVBG
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/16/2017
Views: 3
Erected in 1888 and completed 2 years later, the current Jefferson Historical Museum served as both:
* The US Post Office of the city of Jefferson (the county seat of Marion County), and
* A courthouse of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
from 1890 to 1964.
(FYI: the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas is a federal court in the United States' Fifth Circuit, and this particular location served the federal judicial needs of 6 East Texas counties -- namely Camp, Cass, Harrison, Marion, Morris, and Upshur Counties.
By the early 1960's, the US federal government deemed its quarters to be too cramped for both Post Office and Courthouse day-to-day operations, and therefore:
* The Post Office relocated into a completely new stand-alone one-story building just a block North of here -- at 214 W Lafayette Street -- and
* The courthouse was relocated 15 miles south, to Marshall Texas (Harrison County), where it still resides to this date.
In 1965, the Jefferson Historical Society purchased the old Post Office and Federal Courthouse building for use as a museum; it now houses the "Jefferson Historical Museum".
In 1966, the Texas State Historical Survey Committee designated the old building as a historic landmark.
In 1969, the building was listed in the US National Register of Historical Places. Below are a few excerpts from its original NRHP nomination form, detailing its architecture and historical value:
"In Romanesque style, the combined Federal Courthouse and Post Office Building is typical of many small federal buildings throughout the Southwest and West during this period. It was designed by William A. Ferret and constructed by James H. Caster.
The overall dimensions are seventy-and-a-half feet by fifty-two-and-a-half feet. The structure and the foundations are of common bond brick. Over the court room is a gable roof. A hip-roof covers the remainder of the building. Asphalt shingles now replace the original shingles which were slate. The tower is approximately seventy feet high and is surmounted by a steep, hip-roof, galvanized-iron cresting and finials . Originally, the first floor contained the post office. On the second floor were the courtroom, the jury room, service spaces, and offices for the judge, marshall, clerk, and attorney.
The pricinpal stairhall is located in the tower. The stairway has turned banisters, square newels with some carving. The area that was formerly the public lobby to the post office is paved with six-ince [sic] by eight-inch marble slabs. The remainder of the building has vertical grain, hard, yellow-pine floors.
The courtroom entrance, which is on the pricinpal or southeast facade, is characterized by a round arch with sculptured imposts and decorative brick archivolt [sic]. The post office entrance on the southwest has sidelights and a transom in a round-arched opening. The doors to the work room are double in a round-arched opening with paneled transoms.
Window openings in the basement have segmental arches and fixed sash. First-floor openings are wood, double-hung wood in segmental-arched openings. Courtroom window-openings on the southeast and northwest are spanned with iron lintel-beams over which there are relieving arches and basketweave brickwork. These windows are large two-over-two, double-hung with transome lights. Segmental-arched openings in the courtroom on the northeast have two, double-hung, wood windows per opening separated by a colonette. There are two, small, double-light dormers on the northeast elevation. The gable section of the structure has a deep, brick cornice with a brick dentil course, architrave, frieze with inset panels, and a wooden cornice. The gable section has parapet-end brick walls.
The property for the Marion County Courthouse [clarification: the site was INTENDED to be used as Marion County's courthouse] and Post Office was deeded to the United States on June 29, 1887. Construction was started in May, 1888. The architect was a federal employee attached to the Treasury Department, but the contracting was let to a regional firm. The building was completed early in 1890. In 1965 the Jeffeson Historical Society purchased the building for use as a museum. And in 1966 the Texas State Historical Survey Committee designated it a historic landmark."
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