From the Rio Grande to the White City to the Hudson River, a Texas architect's achievement

James Riely Gordon (cloth)

His Courthouses and Other Public Architecture

Chris Meister

One of Texas’s most talented architects in the late nineteenth century, James Riely Gordon may have been the nation’s most prolific designer of county courthouses. Though Gordon’s Texas courthouses made his reputation, they represent only half of a career in which we see reflected many issues and events shaping American architecture. Most notable were the effort among architects to organize their craft as a profession, the controversial Office of the Supervising Architect of the United States Treasury, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and the City Beautiful Movement.

Situating Gordon’s career, Meister focuses on the public architecture, the pursuit of which took Gordon from San Antonio to Dallas and on to Chicago and New York City as he secured commissions in nine states. Competition was fierce, and Gordon often had to defend his reputation against scandalous charges leveled by jealous architects and unscrupulous politicians.

In his interdisciplinary approach, Meister examines political, cultural, and economic forces for their impact on the finished buildings as well as on Gordon’s career and exposes the political and legal wrangling so often attendant to the construction of buildings that serve as the nexus for their communities.

County courthouses are often conceived as focal points of civic pride; J. Riely Gordon created many such monuments in Texas and, later, in the northeast. Chris Meister shows in gripping detail that in spite of the machinations of jealous competitors, Gordon and his patrons created a lasting legacy of architectural excellence. — Kenneth Hafertepe, Baylor University

In this first significant study of the San Antonio–based architect—remembered for some of Texas’s most famous courthouses—Chris Meister delves into all the aspects of Gordon’s career: politics, negotiation, construction, design, and the successes that led to commissions all over the U.S. Through Gordon we see architecture become a profession. —William Seale, historian, author of The President’s House

Chris Meister took on the challenge of chronicling James Riely Gordon’s career in 1994 while living in Houston. A writer and graphic designer now living in Royal Oak, Michigan, his research has taken him to more than fifty communities in twelve states with connections to Gordon’s work.

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