The Courthouse Still Carries Granite From the 1916 Fire

Walk around the Lamar County Courthouse square in Paris and the 1916 fire is still part of the stonework. The damaged 1896 courthouse was taken apart after the fire. Salvaged granite helped form the foundation for the 1917 courthouse that stands today.

Sanguinet and Staats designed the building with Classical Revival bones and heavy Romanesque arches and columns. Even the records vault has a longer memory. It predated the 1896 courthouse by seven years, survived the fire, and became part of an annex for the newer courthouse.

A later restoration peeled away dropped ceilings and later partitions, so the public rooms read closer to the old plan. That gives the courthouse a layered feel. Some pieces point to the old building, some to the 1917 rebuild, and some to the careful repair work that came much later.

For Lamar County, the courthouse is more than the center of the square. It is the hinge between the Paris that burned and the Paris that built back around it. The stone makes that history visible.