An extensive renovation of the 1910 Harris County Courthouse in Houston, TX, involved restoring and replacing the stonework and tile throughout the building’s interior design
In 1836, when brothers Augustus C. and John K. Allen founded the city of Houston, TX, in Harris County, then known as Harrisburg County, they set aside a large plot of land to house the city’s courthouse. Over the years, a cluster of six courthouses were built on the land, one of which is well-known for its recent multi-million-dollar renovation — the 1910 Harris County Courthouse — originally designed by architect Charles Erwin Barglebaugh of the Dallas-based architectural firm Lang and Witchell. A variety of marble and granite, as well as ceramic and porcelain tile, was employed to create a more sophisticated upscale look.
The 162,360-square-foot former civil courthouse — the fifth courthouse built on the site — is now home to the 1st and 14th Texas State Court of Appeals. When it was built, the building was designed in a Beaux-Arts and Classical Revival style with a requisite dome and Corinthian columns, which was dramatically altered when the courthouse underwent its first renovation in the early 1950s.