Volz lists top concerns

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

The 1890 Donley County Courthouse is in bad shape, but Austin-based architect John Volz says he’s seen worse.

Volz addressed a small crowd of citizens and county officials last Thursday to report the initial findings of his firm’s weeklong survey of the courthouse.

“We have been overwhelmed by the beauty of your courthouse and by the friendliness and hospitality of the people here,” Volz said.

The architect is no stranger to working with beautiful old courthouses. His firm recently oversaw the restoration of the Gonzales County Courthouse. Volz showed slides of that project to the Donley County audience, which showed how badly deteriorated the South Texas structure was.

Earlier this year, the Donley County Commissioners’ Court hired Volz & Associates, Inc., to come up with a Master Plan for the preservation and renovation of the courthouse. Volz and his team spent most of last week going over the structural and physical condition of the building. They also poured over court minutes to establish a chronology of work that has been done to the courthouse.

Volz said there are five main areas of concern facing the courthouse: the roof, bats in the attic, water in the basement, the mechanical and electrical systems, and the structural supports.

The primary problem with the roof is leakage caused by the elaborate angles of the roofline. Volz said this is nothing new to the courthouse. He found the first reference of problems with the roof in court minutes from 1907.

The bats, which infest the attic, have generated piles of guano that is two feet high in some places. Volz said these piles are creating a heavy load on the ceiling of the courtroom and can present a health hazard if a certain type of bacteria begins to grow in them. The bats need to be removed, and a way must be found to keep them out.

Water has seeped into the basement and is deteriorating the mortar in the walls. Volz said these walls will need to be re-pointed (have the mortar replaced).

The mechanical and electrical system needs to be looked at closely and largely replaced. The old knob and tube wiring has frayed insulation and presents a danger of shorting.

The structure is sound for the most part, but one truss in the attic is in compression and needs to be braced. Volz said that if a renovation were to include restoration of the third story tower and dormers on the east side of the courthouse, the issue of support for those additions would need to be looked at.

Several mysteries remain about the courthouse. No reference has been found as to what the original roofing material was. And no one seems to know exactly why or when the third story tower and dormers were removed. Volz did find in the minutes a reference to a contract being let by the court in 1937 to “repair the courthouse,” and it is thought that may be when several significant changes were made to the building.

Volz believes changes to the interior of the building may have been made in 1937 also. The plaster on the walls, he says, is not original except in the first floor hallway. And the ceilings were originally plaster and not the pressed metal that is present today.

Volz said restoring the 1890s Gonzales Courthouse took five years and cost about $2.9 million, and that courthouse was in much worse condition than Donley’s.

The Texas Legislature passed legislation creating the Courthouse Preservation Alliance Program and budgeted $50 million to be used this biennium for courthouse preservation. Donley County is getting a jump on other counties by trying to get their Master Plan done early, Volz said.

Phase one grants for planning and possibly architectural work will be awarded in November.