County Seat: Albany * Population: 3,378
J. E. Flanders selected a Second Empire style for the Shackelford County Courthouse, completed in 1884 using limestone quarried a few miles southwest of Albany. Distinct qualities include the proportion of window area to wall area, a lack of extraneous ornamentation, and the clock tower.
The Shackelford County temple of justice was the first courthouse restored under the Texas Historical Commission’s Courthouse Preservation Program and was rededicated on June 30, 2001. Of the eight or nine Second Empire courthouses designed by Flanders, Shackelford County’s is the only one remaining.
“The centrally located, two-story district courtroom on the second floor rises from the front to the rear, enabling the judge to see everyone in the
courtroom,” described photographer Terry Jeanson.
June Rayfield Welch explains the county’s origin in “The Texas Courthouse Revisited” as follows: “Shackelford County, established in 1858, was organized in 1874 when 168 men petitioned Jack County commissioners for an election. Fort Griffin was the seat briefly before voters chose a more central location – the Albany site. Many Fort Griffin merchants moved there. The first courthouse – of cedar posts – cost $800. The two-story rock jail was fitted with iron cells.”
Upon its organization, the county was named in honor of Dr. John Shackelford, a survivor of the Goliad massacre. The county seat was named after early inhabitants who came from Albany, Georgia.
According to the Texas Historical Commission County Atlas, County Sheriff H.C. Jacobs donated the land for the inaugural county courthouse, which was built 1875 in the middle of the courthouse square. In 1883, this building was removed from the square by a local restaurant owner and was used as a boarding house for the workers hired to construct the current courthouse.
Along its river and creek banks, the area boasts an array of pecan, elm, cottonwood, and hackberry trees, along with mulberry and willow. Originally open prairie, the land and its water are home to white-tailed deer, opossums, raccoons, deer, wild turkeys, and blue herons.
More than 10,000 people from across the state and country descend on Albany, the county seat, each June to take in the Fort Griffin Fandangle, theatrical history set to music as first written in 1938 by an Albany native. The show is directed, lighted, voiced, and danced by the people of Albany in a prairie theater.
As explained at http://www.fortgriffinfandangle.org/, “For 80 years, we’ve told the Texas frontier story – Indians hunting the prairie, settlers moving west with herds of Longhorn cattle, soldiers protecting civilization.”
Along with the Fandangle, special events include August’s Star Gazing Party at Fort Griffin State Park and December’s Chamber of Commerce Christmas Tour of Homes. *