In a few days, the Dallas City Council will be back from summer break. If you listen to the rumors (and we do!), they are fully expected to start deserting City Hall. It would be helpful to read some history so we learn from it and don’t repeat it. This is not our first rodeo with city leaders wanting to vacate and possibly destroy a historically, culturally, and architecturally significant building. The Dallas County Courthouse, known as Old Red, was facing the same fate in the 1960s. Can anyone imagine Dallas without Old Red? No. So let’s hope the story of Old Red rings an alarm bell, especially for our city council and city manager.
Built in 1892, the dramatic Richardsonian Romanesque Dallas County Courthouse was designed by Max A. Orlopp Jr. of the Arkansas-based architectural firm Orlopp & Kusener. Let’s pause for a moment and consider that Dallas City Hall is not yet 50 years old. Old Red is 134 years old and, as of 2024, is functioning once again as a courthouse for the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals.
Old Red is significant in both design and construction. After losing multiple courthouses to fire, this courthouse was built to last. The internal framework was made of cast iron with a grand stairway in the center of the four-level building. Using Pecos red sandstone, blue granite from Little Rock, and Texas granite, it features eight round turrets at 118 feet tall, a 205-foot clock tower, and an arresting gargoyle. It was dramatic for the 1800s, and it has become one of the most historically and architecturally significant buildings in Dallas.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s what is being said and written locally, regionally, nationally, and even globally about our I.M. Pei-designed city hall.
The Old Red and City Hall Similarities Continue
In 1919, the clock and bell tower’s structural stability came into question. The bell weighed 4,500 pounds, and the clock struck on the hour. The decision was made to take both down. That began a series of modifications not unlike what we have seen over the years at City Hall. The building was reconfigured, half of the grand staircase was removed to accommodate more offices, ceilings were dropped, and unsympathetic additions were made — and yes, some workers were moved to the basement. The plumbing had become problematic, and there was no air conditioning.
The Dallas Morning News has dozens of articles with descriptions of Old Red ranging from monstrosity to obsolete and just plain ugly. As the new courthouse was being constructed, there were endless behind-the-scenes discussions about Old Red’s fate. It was determined that no decision would be made until the new building was finished. The modernist George Allen Courthouse opened in 1965, and guess what? The word demolition was on the lips of many.
In January, Paula Bosse noted in her Flashback Dallas blog another alarming notion written about Old Red that parallels what we have seen reported about Dallas City Hall:…