Old Red, the second County Courthouse to boast a clock tower, opened in 1893.

By 1919, it had become obvious that the clock tower was decaying and wreaking ruin on the rest of the courthouse. Cracks had appeared in the tower walls, rock had fallen off, and the mortar was crumbling. The bid to remove it was let on March 10 and demolition began the following week. The bell was carved into pieces to facilitate removal, and sold, along with the clock, for $300.

Not weight so much as wind doomed the tower, according to architect James Pratt. "We have had extensive studies made by our staff and engineers, showing that bending from wind loading, not weight, was the culprit," said Pratt, who is designing a reinforcing collar to bolster the new tower.

The clock tower's restoration is significant to each aspect of the project and the community.

For the courthouse, it means the building's appearance will present, for the first time since 1919, the vision of our young community during an exciting time of development.

The impact of the restored tower may be difficult to visualize. Photographs of the period, most from street level, rarely convey the size of the tower. Its reconstruction will add nearly 90 feet, almost three fourths again the height of the building. It will effect a dramatic change to the building and its environs.

For Old Red Museum, the tower completes the restoration of one of County history's most significant artifacts, a courthouse built just as the modern era supplanted the Wild West.

The clock itself speaks of an era when a county courthouse was looked to for standards, not only in law and civil dispute, but also in such practical needs as displaying the correct time. Those visiting the county seat would set their pocket watches to the clock and convey that accurate time back to their homestead. National time standards weren't established till 1918, nor broadcast over radio until the 1920s. (Rail systems adopted standard time in 1883, but it was many years before such time was actually used by the people themselves and codified.)

For the community, restoring Old Red's clock tower will be a signal event, an act of preservation visible to hundreds of thousands of visitors to downtown Dallas. Such public construction ensures that the return of Old Red to activity will be heralded by a visible and dynamic change to the skyline.

Said County Assistant Administrator Dan Savage, "The clock tower reconstruction work will be the capstone on the overall effort to restore Old Red. It will also be the visual centerpiece in the County's revitalization of its downtown government center campus."

The 1940s WPA Dallas Guide and History notes that Contemporary newspaper accounts record that visitors came from far and near to admire its grandeur and hear its massive two-ton bell boom out the hours. Thanks to the support of the State of Texas, that day will come again, and more quickly than we had hoped.