Uncovering history

The Chronicle had an interesting story Sunday on an ongoing project downtown: the restoration of the old Harris County Courthouse, an impressive building that opened in 1910 and has been remodeled, subdivided and otherwise defaced in the decades since then. The restoration began last year, after the county civil courts moved to a new building on Caroline Street, and it's expected to be complete by Nov. 15, 2010 — 100 years to the day after the building opened.

Much of the building's interior detailing was lost during a drastic renovation in 1954. Ornamental plasterwork was ripped off the walls, original details were hidden behind drop ceilings, courtroom mezzanines were closed up to create new office space and and building's rotunda, which was ringed by marble columns and rose five stories to a skylight, was floored over to create additional rooms. Now that workers are trying to restore much of the building to its 1910 appearance, they're facing a challenge: The restoration team doesn't really know what the interior of the courthouse originally looked like. They have some clues — bits of plasterwork, for example, that's been hidden since 1954 — but the design of some major features, like the skylight itself, isn't known. Dan Reissig, special projects manager in the county's architectural and engineering division, said he thinks the skylight might have resembled the one in the Johnson County courthouse in Cleburne. The Johnson County courthouse was designed by Lang & Witchell of Dallas, the same architects who designed the Harris County courthouse, and Reissig said the skylight in Johnson County is amazing. "It blows you away when you see it," he said. "It's unreal. It's the prominent feature of the building."

Reissig's team is asking Houstonians who remember the courthouse as it originally appeared to share their memories and anyone who has photos of the building from before 1954 to send those as well — his e-mail is dreissig (at) pid.hctx (dot) net. The restoration project will involve exterior work as well: Monumental staircases that once led to the building's east and west entrances will be rebuilt, and a replica of the 15-foot pinnacle that was removed from the top of the courthouse dome sometime before the 1930s will be set in place. We can't wait to see how it all comes out.