From Preservation Online, the online magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

www.preservationonline.org

Once a Lost Cause, Dallas Courthouse Has Been Restored as a Museum


Story by Margaret Foster / Aug. 8, 2007

A Dallas courthouse, rescued from demolition twice and vacant since the 1980s, has been restored as a museum.

Last week, workers completed the restoration of the 1892 Dallas County Courthouse, known as Old Red. A replica of the original 90-foot-tall clock tower, removed in 1919 because winds threatened to bring it down, tops the four-story Romanesque building.

A log cabin built on the site in 1856 served as Dallas County's first courthouse for two years until it burned down. A second courthouse burned in 1890, but the third survived. In both 1938 and 1946, the city voted to demolish Old Red for new skyscrapers but had second thoughts. A citizens group formed in the late 1980s to stabilize the former courthouse.

During the six-year project, workers also restored the building's cast-iron grand staircase, which had been removed in the 1920s.

The building opened in May as the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture. Together, the state and county chipped in $35.6 million, and private donors contributed another $14.5 million.

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