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Ellis County
Courthouse
©2007 Bill Morgan. All
rights reserved
ELLIS COUNTY - Except for the Dallas County
Courthouse, 14 miles west of my house as the I30 traffic flies, the courthouse
at Waxahachie is the quickest of the Top Twelve for me to reach. With both
geography and aesthetics tugging at me, I've probably visited it as often as
any other courthouse in Texas. Another reason is that I've painted it three
times.
'Most every time I go there, I sit on a bench cattycornered
from the northwest entrance, or maybe the southwest, and just stare for a few
minutes--it's hard to think directions when you're ogling that overwhelming
building.
And I can't recall one time that I haven't seen someone
leading a visitor or even a passel of visitors around the building and pointing
up to tile work about 35 feet above the street. The biggest attraction at
Texas' biggest courthouse attraction continues to be the famous sculpting of
Harry Hurley, the unlucky lover-stonemason. If you know Texas courthouses, you
know the story:
Harry moved to Waxahachie to chisel stone decorations
for the courthouse. He stayed at the Frame family's boarding house, where he
fell in love with their daughter, but the sculptor couldn't cut it with Mabel.
His tile likenesses of her became more and more grotesque as the building
progressed and the relationship regressed. I've been told more than once that
other parts of the female anatomy can be found among Harry Hurley's handiwork
on the Ellis building. I haven't spotted anything that I could say represents
said subject, but the changing features of the young woman in tile attest to
one rocky romance for the stonemason.
You have to spare a little
sympathy for Harry--who hasn't suffered unrequited love? On the other hand, if
Mabel hadn't had a heart of stone as far as Harry was concerned, they might
have lived happily ever after. But who would remember them
today?
Buy A Print
11x17 prints
on sturdy stock of the Ellis County Courthouse are available on my ordering
page. The cost is $20 for the first print and $16 for additional prints of
this, or any of the other 11 courthouses, purchased at the same time. (Add $3
for shipping) |
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