描述
**Tarrant County Courthouse**
**Art by:** Chris Hytha
**Story by:** Mark Houser
The pink granite used for this courthouse came from the same quarry that supplied stones for the state capitol. Yet this handsome structure on the bluff where soldiers first built an outpost in 1849 has never quite received the respect it warrants.
The Austin project received free granite in exchange for a rail spur to the quarry, but Tarrant County got no such deal, and voters in 1894 booted the county commissioners for their extravagance. When the railroad opened a highrise passenger terminal in Fort Worth in 1931, its president mocked the courthouse and implored citizens to replace it with something more modern. Demolition was entertained but never implemented, and though new buildings now host most trials, the old hall of justice survives with a few restored courtrooms, a law library, and a vertiginous four-story rotunda.
Tarrant County takes its name from Edward Tarrant, a militia commander in the Republic of Texas who ordered raids against Native American settlements in the area in 1841. Afterward, the native Caddo, Cherokee, and other tribes withdrew, negotiating a treaty with Tarrant two years later that established a new frontier at the river confluence this courthouse overlooks.
