Tyler, Texas 1916 old photo

[Corey Walker]

I saw this old picture today at the rehab where my grandma is at in Tyler. It was too long to take a picture of all of it with my phone but this is most of it. It looks like a 1913 touring sandwiched between 2 1914’s. They’ve got the horses and cars parked in separate locations. That is the old Smith County courthouse. They are about to tear down the one the replaced it with, which isn’t nearly as attractive, and build a new one that looks like the original one.

[TXGOAT2]

My brother described the "new" Smith County courthouse as "looking like an electric shaver".

Hideous Moderne ?

[Corey Walker]

It’s supposed to be a modern design. I read a story about it one time saying that one of the judges or commissioners had a friend in the construction business and whatever went on resulted in the new courthouse. The first one was built in 1910, here is a picture of it being demolished in front of the new one in 1955.