I need some help...

Here is my plan. I am nearing retirement. One of the things my bride and I have been doing the last couple of years is taking a picture with us in front of courthouses in the state of Texas. We want to visit every courthouse and take a picture.

To display this, I want a big map of Texas with the counties drawn out. I want to then cut the pictures out in the shape of the county and place it on the map. Once complete, epoxy it and display it in the garage.

I surely am not talented enough or skilled enough to cut it out and draw a map on a piece of plywood. Nor can I find a map that is big enough for the display I'm looking for. If I could find that, I'd simply mount it on a piece of plywood and go from there.

Any ideas?

I would find a nice map on the internet. Then I would digitally paste the pictures into where you want them on the map. When you have it how you like it, find someone on Etsy. There are hundreds of them. Email them the file. Tell them approximately how big you want the pictures to be and they can tell you how big the map would be. From there, they can direct you with options for mounting. If they don't respond or communicate quickly and effectively, move along.

Wait until you see Loving County's...

I'm intrigued with the whole electronic aspect. I have no clue how any of that works but seems legit.

I would think you could get someone to this for you and then print it. In college station I would say copy corner.

On a side note Washington county courthouse under restoration per county. Looks more like complete rebuild of exterior and once that is finished another year or so our redo of landscape and paving.

Calhoun County makes those above look like the Taj Mahal.

That's 254 of them. Ambitious plan! Please post some updates along on way. My home county has a 4' peanut out front. You'll know it when you see it.

I suspect that many are undergoing renovations at any given time so plan accordingly. The Lee County courthouse was fenced off for quite a while.

The company I retired from provided property and casualty insurance products for governmental entities. I was the sales and marketing manager for the US. We had 67 or so of the 254 counties here in Texas insured including 3 mentioned in the thread.....Austin, Calhoun and Bee. Carolyn Bilskie was the county judge of Austin Co back then and she recommended other counties to me and made introductions. So did the CJ's of Victoria, Tom Green, Smith, Gray, Lipscomb , Hopkins, Jim Wells, Gillespie, Val Verde and Zapata to name a few. We insured 107 ISD's in the state. We also had 66 of the 82 counties in Mississippi insured.

That was a fun job and got to see a lot of rural America from Vermont down to Florida, west to Arizona, north to Oregon back over to Vermont and everything in between.

cochrum said:

---

From Texas ATM printing press. Bought one for my grandma

---

I have this print also.

There is a fairly recent (2007) book, The Courthouses of Texas, that would serve you well in this adventure. It is available on Amazon.

Rex Racer said:

---

RikkiTikkaTagem said:

---

I can save you one trip to my hometown.

Just take a picture in front of a cinder block setup to look bigger than it really is. Same thing.

---

We're from the same hometown!

---

Bellville gang checking in

There was a group of TX motorcycle riders I followed who we riding around getting pics of their bikes at all the county courthouses. IIRC, there are actually something like 265, counting retired buildings and such.

I think adding in retired and abandoned courthouses would be great. For instance, the 1909 courthouse in Canyon (Randall) is not in use and the actual courthouse is in a remodeled Walmart (Lawmart)

Old Tascosa had the old Oldham County courthouse on the grounds of Boys Ranch, it is now a museum

Hoosegow said:

---

Wait until you see Loving County's...

I'm intrigued with the whole electronic aspect. I have no clue how any of that works but seems legit.

---

I thought they built a new one. I could be wrong but my very first ever landman gig was there in 2011 and I thought they were going to construct a new one to deal with the onslaught of landmen that they had in there.

CanyonAg77 said:

---

I think adding in retired and abandoned courthouses would be great. For instance, the 1909 courthouse in Canyon (Randall) is not in use and the actual courthouse is in a remodeled Walmart (Lawmart)

Old Tascosa had the old Oldham County courthouse on the grounds of Boys Ranch, it is now a museum

---

I was going to comment along these lines. Many of the old, classic courthouses are no longer being used by any courts. Of those, many/most are still open and some form of museum or historical society. You can still easily find them, but if you search "county courthouse" you may get directions to any number of locations like 77 lists here.

Parker County (Weatherford) remodeled the interior of their old courthouse and the County Court at Law (2, I think) is beautiful. I tried a case in there last year and loved every minute of being in there. I'm more of an interior guy.

I've also been in courthouses, mostly JP ones, that are nothing more than a metal building.

My hometown too. I actually did an English paper on the 1960 fire that burned down the original courthouse in Austin County. The crappy clocks in the corners were supposed to have been a concession for everyone who was complaining that the new design had no clock like the old one did. And, the bell in front of the courthouse now was the bell that hung at the top of the old one that burned down. It survived the fire and a fall to the basement.

BlueHeeler said:

---

My hometown too. I actually did an English paper on the 1960 fire that burned down the original courthouse in Austin County. The crappy clocks in the corners were supposed to have been a concession for everyone who was complaining that the new design had no clock like the old one did. And, the bell in front of the courthouse now was the bell that hung at the top of the old one that burned down. It survived the fire and a fall to the basement.

---

We lived there for 5 years or so and I always wondered how the went from such a cool, old, historic courthouse to the eyesore that they have now.

Mine has a giant pecan so there is that.

cevans_40 said:

---

BlueHeeler said:

---

My hometown too. I actually did an English paper on the 1960 fire that burned down the original courthouse in Austin County. The crappy clocks in the corners were supposed to have been a concession for everyone who was complaining that the new design had no clock like the old one did. And, the bell in front of the courthouse now was the bell that hung at the top of the old one that burned down. It survived the fire and a fall to the basement.

---

We lived there for 5 years or so and I always wondered how the went from such a cool, old, historic courthouse to the eyesore that they have now.

---

Never understood it either. You'd think they could have had a temporary space for the courthouse back then rather than slap up the ugliest courthouse in Texas that would remain forever. Also surprised with all the wealth and pull around there, that something hasn't been done to make the square nicer.

Get a projector and connect it to your computer. Project a picture of a map on the surface you want it on. Trace the lines and then paint over them or whatever you want.

Alternate or possibly in conjunction with the above get a Circut machine. Get an outline map and cut out each county on the computer. Use that to cut your photo perfectly into county shape on the Cricut.

If I remember correctly, there were two reasons that Austin County courthouse looks that bad:

1.) They were trying to make the architecture look "futuristic".
2.) It was actually built to be a bomb shelter because of all the nuclear tension during that period. As I recall, that was the main reason for no windows.

There used to be nuclear symbols on the walls down in the basement. I spent some time in that courthouse as a kid, as my 2nd cousin was the county treasurer for many years and would babysit me now and then.

My folks travelled all over in their camper and did exactly that, well photos with the courthouses. They finished up about three years ago and then my dad had all the pictures put into a coffee table book with a brief description, date, where they stayed when taking the picture etc. it is pretty cool to go through.

Howdy Dammit said:

---

cevans_40 said:

---

BlueHeeler said:

---

My hometown too. I actually did an English paper on the 1960 fire that burned down the original courthouse in Austin County. The crappy clocks in the corners were supposed to have been a concession for everyone who was complaining that the new design had no clock like the old one did. And, the bell in front of the courthouse now was the bell that hung at the top of the old one that burned down. It survived the fire and a fall to the basement.

---

We lived there for 5 years or so and I always wondered how the went from such a cool, old, historic courthouse to the eyesore that they have now.

---

Never understood it either. You'd think they could have had a temporary space for the courthouse back then rather than slap up the ugliest courthouse in Texas that would remain forever. Also surprised with all the wealth and pull around there, that something hasn't been done to make the square nicer.

---

Back then, "modern" was better. My mom had a cool painting of the old courthouse. We still have it.

Back to the original request about doing this with plywood. You really just need someone with a CO2 laser and the vector files for the counties to cut all the pieces out. You then size your pictures and glue them to the plywood pieces and trim them accordingly. Then assemble them all on a "huge" sheet of plywood that you would hang on the wall. I say "huge" because those tiny counties will be pretty small unless you plan to make the whole thing 8' tall.

I could probably laser cut everything in my shop if the plywood isn't too thick. I like to stay 1/4" or thinner. But I have always had a really hard time charging people for work when I'm never satisfied with the end result because to me it has to be absolutely perfect to justify putting a price on it, and nothing is ever perfect. I usually make stuff for free for friends and my teacher wife who constantly needs stuff for her classroom.

Rex Racer said:

---

Howdy Dammit said:

---

cevans_40 said:

---

BlueHeeler said:

---

My hometown too. I actually did an English paper on the 1960 fire that burned down the original courthouse in Austin County. The crappy clocks in the corners were supposed to have been a concession for everyone who was complaining that the new design had no clock like the old one did. And, the bell in front of the courthouse now was the bell that hung at the top of the old one that burned down. It survived the fire and a fall to the basement.

---

We lived there for 5 years or so and I always wondered how the went from such a cool, old, historic courthouse to the eyesore that they have now.

---

Never understood it either. You'd think they could have had a temporary space for the courthouse back then rather than slap up the ugliest courthouse in Texas that would remain forever. Also surprised with all the wealth and pull around there, that something hasn't been done to make the square nicer.

---

Back then, "modern" was better. My mom had a cool painting of the old courthouse. We still have it.

---

I was always told they just slapped something together out of necessity to get a functioning courthouse. Makes it worse hearing it was planned to look modern. Lol