Early on the morning of Feb. 4, 2021, an arsonist's fire consumed the Mason County Courthouse in Mason, Texas.
The Texas Historical Commission’s Susan Tietz visited the site two days later. “The framework for the building was still in place, but it was gutted," she explained. "The building before the fire was one of the most intact historic courthouses I had seen. All of that was destroyed. There were still, I think, a few windows here and there that survived the fire, but very little did survive.”
Photos from the night of the fire showed the entire upper and inner structure of the three-story building engulfed in flames. While it was a total loss, Tietz said there was a hint of a silver lining on that destruction.
“Because it was a historic building and had load bearing masonry walls that were limestone and sandstone, most of the exterior walls of the masonry walls and the window openings, and the double height columns and the porches were still intact,” she said. The massive pecan trees encircling the courthouse also survived.
The courthouse was already slated for a remodel, so much of what would be valuable to the county had just been removed from the building.
“At the time, the county was just moved all of their things out of the building, anticipating the full restoration of the courthouse with a round 10 grant from our program,” she said. “About two days after the fire, I met with the former county judge Jerry Bearden on site, and we walked through the building and saw the terrible destruction.”
The arsonist was identified as Nicholas Miller, who was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to 75 years for burning the building down.
Tietz called Bearden the morning after the fire. “And he said, ‘while I am absolutely devastated, and our community has lost what we feel is a family member and the heart of our community. We are absolutely determined to rebuild.’ It was about eight in the morning after the fire. He said we are committed, and we are going to make this happen. And I think by that afternoon, he had community members forming a fundraising effort.”
The timing worked out well because it was 2021. The Texas Legislature was in session, and legislators were inclined to help Mason rebuild.
“And so they reached out to the legislature, and they appropriated $6 million to supplement the $4.1 million that we had already awarded the county. And so they immediately started pulling together funds to rebuild,” Tietz said.
They decided to rebuild the courthouse as it was and not to modernize its look.
On Saturday, July 13, Mason County citizens finally got to see the completed structure as it was dedicated. Tietz had other commitments and couldn’t attend, but several of her associates participated.
“I heard that it was one of the most extraordinary re-dedications. They were trying to get a sense of how many people were in attendance,” Tietz said. “And when they reached 1000, they just stopped counting. So they believe there were probably close to 1,200 attendees, and there was a parade and a rodeo. And so I think it was very celebratory.”
