Upshur County Courthouse - Gilmer, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 32° 43.745 W 094° 56.674
15S E 317779 N 3622926
This is a five-story building in an elongated "H" plan, designed in the Moderne style by architect Elmer George Withers in 1936 and completed in 1937.
Waymark Code: WMZVBM
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/08/2019
Views: 1
NRHP Nomination Form"An application for funding from the P.W.A.— a grant of 45% of $150,000 for courthouse construction — was forwarded to Washington and denied, as the requested amount was too high and not in compliance with federal assistance programs.
Over the course of subsequent months, however, the Commissioners' Court began to discuss the possibility of using revenues from oil or mineral leases for the construction of the new courthouse, and while Withers worked on the drawings, Upshur County elected to forego the 35% grant from the P.W.A. and fund the new building without federal assistance.
The fourth Upshur County Courthouse, designed by Elmer George Withers in 1935 and completed in 1937, is a significant example of the modern classical style frequently utilized throughout Texas for civic buildings during the 1930s and 1940s. Although the style is more commonly referred to as "Art Deco," a term derived from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Moderne in Paris, the building's appearance is more accurately understood as a combination of fairly traditional design concepts with elements of the new "modernistic" formal vocabulary associated with Art Deco and Moderne architecture.
Located on the public square in the county seat of Gilmer, the building's minimal exterior ornamentation includes delicately fluted limestone spandrel panels beneath its stacks of bi-fold steel windows, suggesting classical columns. Monumental stairs lead to central entrance bays on the north and south elevations; these connect to meet a five-story central volume, which is flanked by two-story wings on a raised basement.