Alexis Narvaez

September 30, 2012

CEA A3
Extra Credit: Research on James Riley Gordon
James Riley Gordon is an architect who specialized in building
courthouses for places around the United States, especially Texas.
In total, he has made 72 courthouses during his career. He was
born on August 2, 1863 and he died of stroke on March 16, 1937.
He mainly used Romanesque Revival Style (also called NeoRomanesque) which was popular in Germany in the 1830s. He built
Greek cross courthouses for Texas between 1891 and 1900. James
was also different from other architects because he didnt get the
usual education they did and he distanced himself from urban
areas. It is said that he got to where he is today with a lot of hard
work, talent, and ambition. His father was a Civil engineer and he
moved with his parents in 1874 to San Antonio. He practiced in
Texas for less than 2 decades but he still designed many building
types for Texas during that time. He also worked in Dallas from 1900-1902. He supervised the building of
the Federal Courthouse and Post Office in San Antonio for 3 years.
During 1984 12 of his original structure were still standing and 10 of them were still serving their original
purpose. Even though he built a lot of structure in Dallas, the John Deere structure remains today. One
of the best preserved buildings that he built was the Nolte National Bank in Seguin. Some of his
buildings were destroyed but many of them were repaired as well. He also had several styles throughout
his career. He started off with the eclectic style in the Moorish custom to the Romanesque style similar
to Henry Richardson.
In 1903 he moved to New York and his career expanded. He served 13
times as the President of the New York Society of Architects. He died on
March 16, 1937 of a stroke in New York. Many of his documents and
papers at are the University of Texas. In his career he also had a series of
competitors too. He designed the Ellis County Courthouse in 1892.One of
his partners in New York was Alfred Zucker.
The Ellis County courthouse was named the Queen Cotton Country of
the World. He built it to fit the area and climate and built with an open
air shaft and 4 commercial buildings on each side. People think some of
the styles on the building are Spanish, Venetian, Romanesque, Byzantine,
Moorish, and Victorian. He used a lot of geometry with round arches, towers, and turrets. The geometry
was looser and complex and was less traditional. The citizens of Ellis County took great pride in the

structure and it has many colors and textures. He also used three-foot-thick masonry walls with a grey
granite base. HE also used several materials, like granite.
There is also a spilt face finish on the building. If you look at the building from far away, you see a rough
tall building. When you get closer to the building, there are more details that make the building shine. It
also expresses Waxahachie and was named the Temple of Justice in the agricultural community of
Waxahachie.

Works Cited:
Lane, L. (n.d.). James Riely Gordon, Architect: Born in Winchester VA 1863, Died in Pelham NY 1937.
Retrieved September 30, 2012, from 254 Texas Couthouses:
http://www.254texascourthouses.net/james-riely-gordon-architect.html
Speck, L. (n.d.). Ellis County Courthouse. Retrieved September 30, 2012, from Larry Speck:
http://larryspeck.com/1986/09/04/ellis-county-courthouse/
The Alexander Architectural Archive. (n.d.). James Riley Gordon (1863-1937). Retrieved 30 September,
2012, from The University of Texas Website:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/exhibits/blakeschoice/gordon.html
Wikipedia. (n.d.). James Riley Gordon. Retrieved September 30, 2012, from Wikipedia: THe Free
Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Riely_Gordon
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Romanesque Revival architecture. Retrieved September 30, 2012, from Wikipedia: The
Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesque_Revival
"GORDON, JAMES RIELY," Handbook of Texas Online
(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fgo30), accessed September 30, 2012. Published
by the Texas State Historical Association.