a few days ago i finished reading the courthouse square in Texas by robert e. veselka. it was a book birthed from a dissertation on all of courthouse squares in Texas. it discussed different styles and their racial and cultural origins and traditions. it also attempted to show any possible correlations between the types of courthouses and their status in the community through time. it had some interesting information in it, but overall was a bit dry. i guess that should be expected from books based on dissertations, for the most part.
for me, it would have been nice if it would have included more pictures of the various courthouses. the county courthouse intrigues me, and there are some pretty beautiful and amazing ones in Texas. (as well as some pretty bland and boring ones, mostly ones built in the 60’s forward.) i would bet many of them have interesting histories.
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PBS had a great documentary on it a couple years back. couldn’t find it on their website…but was great. it gave stories behind their construction and important events that happened at its “feet”.
There is a good PBS documentary out on TX courthouses. It was surprisingly entertaining.
gee, two good responses within a couple of hours of each other. that documentary sounds like a winner. is this it:
http://store.channel8.org/goageofteco.html
“the golden age of Texas courthouses”? says it first aired in 2004, in two parts. (both are on the dvd.)
also, raj i can understand knowing about this since he’s an architect and all…but mcguff, this is from your competition. how do you know about their programming? or is the perception of public television portrayed in the movie anchorman how other media view them?
Most TV folks probably don’t watch PBS, I am a rare exception.