The Vault Survived, Then Emory Built Around It

Rains County began in 1870 with a temporary log courthouse. Two years later, county business moved into a two-room building. Fire destroyed that building and its records in 1879. The replacement, a two-story red brick courthouse finished in 1884, burned in 1908. This time the steel vault and the records inside survived. The next courthouse was designed around that vault, still standing in its original place.

The old building remained in another form. Workers crushed its brick into the new foundation. Above ground, the Fraser Brick Company supplied ginger-colored brick made from clay dug at Ginger, three miles east of Emory. The courthouse opened in 1909 with projecting wings, pedimented entrances, and a central dome.

The square gathered more than county business. Fairs, festivals, celebrations, and parades met there; Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson were among its public speakers. The building itself was rededicated in 2009 after restoration work removed a north addition and renewed the slate roof, dome shingles, metalwork, and courtroom finishes.

That leaves Emory with a courthouse made from two local memories at once: the fire that tested its vault and the Rains County clay that gave the new walls their color.