The Eldon B. Mahon United States Courthouse is a courthouse

Courthouse

A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply...

 of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas is a United States district court. Its first judge, Andrew Phelps McCormick, was appointed to the court on April 10, 1879. The court convenes in Dallas, Texas with divisions in Fort Worth, Amarillo, Abilene, Lubbock, San Angelo...

 and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Louisiana* Middle District of Louisiana...

 located in Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

. Built in 1933, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 2001, and was renamed in honor of district court judge Eldon Brooks Mahon

Eldon Brooks Mahon

Eldon Brooks Mahon was a United States federal judge.Born in Loraine, Texas, Mahon received a B.A. from McMurry College in 1939 and an LL.B. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1942. He was in the United States Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945. He was a law clerk, Hon. J. E. Hickman,...

 in 2003.

Building history

Completed in 1934 during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, the courthouse symbolized growth and renewed optimism in Fort Worth. Akin to other buildings of the 1930s, its design and construction fit the pattern of the New Deal

New Deal

The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

-era federal building programs enacted to relieve widespread unemployment. Recognizing that the city's existing federal building was inadequate for the burgeoning federal agencies, Congress appropriated $1,215,000 in June 1930 for the construction of a new U.S. Courthouse.

The building's forward-looking design makes a significant contribution to the city's impressive collection of Depression-era architecture. Renowned Philadelphia architect Paul Philippe Cret

Paul Philippe Cret

Paul Philippe Cret was a French-American architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he headed the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.- Biography :...

, in association with prominent local architect Wiley G. Clarkson, designed the building under the direction of the Office of the Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department. Clarkson, a native Texan, designed many buildings in Fort Worth during the 1920s and 1930s, including the Trinity Episcopal Church, the Woolworth Building

Woolworth Building

The Woolworth Building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York City. More than a century after the start of its construction, it remains, at 57 stories, one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City...

, and the Texas Christian University Library.

In 1938, artist Frank Albert Mechau was commissioned under the Public Works Administration

Public Works Administration

The Public Works Administration , part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression...

's art programs to paint three oil-on-canvas panels in the fourth-floor Court of Appeals. Mechau, a realistic painter who romanticized the American West, is a key figure of the western genre-with work on public view in Federal buildings and art museums across the country. Mechau's paintings were installed in 1940, becoming the only New Deal art commission sponsored in Fort Worth.

The U.S. Courthouse was named in honor of Judge Eldon B. Mahon in 2003 for his service in the Northern District of Texas. Mahon presided over some of the most influential social and political cases in north Texas, including overseeing the racial integration

Racial integration

Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...

 of the Fort Worth School District-a 19-year endeavor.

The Courthouse remains an important landmark in downtown Fort Worth and is a symbol of the continued Federal presence in Tarrant County.

Architecture

The building is an impressive five-story structure, creating the illusion of a solid limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 mass rising to a height of 94 feet. It is designed in the Art Moderne style, incorporating classical elements. A steel and concrete structure faced with limestone veneer, each elevation adheres to classical principles of symmetry and articulation by a regular rhythm of bays with a centralized principal entrance. Art Moderne elements are embodied by the sharp angles and zigzag surfaces seen in the stacked fenestration of the upper stories, and in the geometric, low-relief abstraction of the ornamentation.

The first three floors of the courthouse form a rectangular block, while upper floors are E-shaped, opening to the south to form two, three-sided light wells. Original access to the building was gained through three sets of bronze and glass double doors, flanked by Art Deco lanterns of aluminum and glass fronting West Tenth Street. Aluminum grilles in Mayan ziggurat

Ziggurat

Ziggurats were massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels.Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, Iraq; the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near...

, zigzag, Plains Indian arrows, and Egyptian lotus motifs are set over each pair of doors. Metal trim with Pueblo designs accentuates the windows of the second, third, and fourth floors. The smooth stone walls of the first story rise to a flattened, dentiled stringcourse before a shallow setback to the upper-story block. The outer bays of the second story have semicircular balconies of corbelled stone and metal railings. In between, eleven sets of three-story, stacked windows are each angled outward to the central mullion, creating a distinctive zigzag pattern across the surface of the facade. The window spandrels separating each floor feature moldings incised with black designs in Pueblo Indian motifs. The elongated bays are capped by horizontal windows at the fifth story, as the stone walls terminate to a flat roof. The east and west elevations are mirror images of each other and vary little from the facade, except in their width.

Sumptuous finishes, crafted of marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 and bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

, and Native American and Art Deco-influenced detailing create eye-catching public spaces on the interior. The former postal lobby and the second- and fourth-floor courtrooms are the most architecturally enriched. The north lobby retains its original terrazzo floor, composed of multicolored marble, forming a zigzag pattern bordered by rectangular designs in pink Lepanto marble along the wall perimeter.

The Federal District Court, located on the second floor, displays finishes of the highest quality. Leather-sheathed doors open onto a room with 21-foot-high walls of rich oak paneling framed by dark Cedar Tennessee marble

Tennessee marble

Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found primarily in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, this stone has been used in the construction of numerous notable...

. Art Deco applications at the judge's white-oak bench and the plaster ornament of the ceiling are decorative focal points.

The Court of Appeals on the fourth floor exhibits similar finishes and motifs, featuring 22-foot-high walls clad in American black walnut paneling that is rounded at the corners in a streamlined effect. The door jambs and engaged columns are Yellow Kasota Fleuri marble, while the plaster ceiling displays a circular band of geometric patterns. At the rear of this room hang Frank Mechau's dramatic murals: "Texas Rangers in Camp," "The Taking of Sam Bass," and "Flags over Texas." Depicting cowboys, rangers and scenic views of Texas, they are recognized for their skillfully executed abstract and linear style.

Extensive renovations in 1994 to create a bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 courtroom and offices partially reversed remodeling done in the 1950s and 1960s. Currently the south half of the lobby has been incorporated into the new courtroom, keeping the original north postal lobby intact. The U.S. Courthouse remains an outstanding example of the 1930s Art Moderne style.

Significant events

• 1933: Courthouse constructed
• 1934: The building opens to the public.
• 1940: Murals painted by Frank Albert Mechau are installed in the fourth-floor Court of Appeals.
• 1956: First floor remodeled, removing most of the original postal substation features.
• 1994: First-floor lobby renovated to include a new bankruptcy court and associated offices.
• 2001: Courthouse listed in the National Register of Historic Places
  National Register of Historic Places
  The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
  
  .
• 2003: Renamed in honor of Judge Eldon B. Mahon.

Building facts

• Architect: Paul Philippe Cret; Wiley G. Clarkson
• Location: 501 West Tenth Street
• Architectural Style: Art Moderne
• Primary Materials: Limestone veneer, concrete, steel, marble
• Prominent Features: Multicolored terrazzo flooring; Art Deco detailing; courtroom wood paneling and murals