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Montgomery County Courthouse

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1936, Joseph Finger. 310 N. Main St.
  • (Photograph by Gerald Moorhead )

The county courthouse, designed by Houston architect Finger, is a monumental four-story modernistic block faced with limestone and decorative aluminum spandrels. Unfortunately, two-story wings added in 1965 totally consume the square's open space. Moreover, they sit over a partially exposed basement-level parking garage, which crowds the edges of the square. Even so, downtown Conroe has been architecturally, if not commercially, revitalized. The perimeter of the square is virtually intact and it is marked by the dark red brick that, as much as the change in topography and tree species, announces the transition from the Gulf Coastal Plain to east Texas. An intensive rehabilitation effort begun in 1999 makes the point that in the chaotic suburban sprawl of Montgomery County, there is a “there” here, to counter Gertrude Stein's observation about her hometown, Oakland, California.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Montgomery County Courthouse", [Conroe, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-TM15.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 376-376.

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