Bradford Hardie Jr. was an early 1900s El Paso and Dallas architect, well known in the Dallas area as the house architect for the Woolworth's chain. Most of his professional career was based in El Paso, however, where he designed a number of residences and church buildings. His most notable extant El Paso designs are the downtown Gardner Hotel (see https://www.facebook.com/TrostSociety/posts/3054800901304622), and, as half of the firm of Beutell & Hardie, the beautiful Crockett Elementary building (see https://www.facebook.com/TrostSociety/posts/3241221995995844). Before his retirement in 1960, he worked as the house architect in the engineering department of El Paso Natural Gas for 15 years.
Hardie moved to El Paso when he was 13 years old, graduating from El Paso High School. He received his degree in Architecture from Cornell University. As a respected Architectural Historian, he argued vehemently against the remodeling of the Trost & Trost designed El Paso County Courthouse in 1955, believing the work and legacy of the Trost firm should be preserved. "The drastic and expensive changes in the exterior of our El Paso County Courthouse, if carried out as contemplated, would be little short of tragic" he stated in a letter written on 01/11/1955, pointedly directed at Mabel Welch.
The 1919 Hudspeth County Courthouse, located in Sierra Blanca, Texas, is a Spanish Eclectic design with Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial design elements. Its roof was originally built with clay tiles, however in a 2003 restoration these were replaced with metal tiles designed to look like clay, so as to help protect the building. The 14,000 SF structure is in a T shape, and includes a small basement. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and remains the only existing Adobe County Courthouse in Texas.
We look forward to discovering additional buildings designed by this wonderfully talented architect.
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Text and research provided to sketchclub.net by Mark Stone, citing period newspaper articles accessed at newspapers.com.
Also citing Texas Mountain Trail at https://texasmountaintrail.com/plan-your-adventure/historic-sites-and-cities/sites/hudspeth-county-courthouse
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| Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia Commons |
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| 2009 photograph courtesy of Barclay Gibson, via TexasEscapes.com |
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| 1939 photograph courtesy of TXDoT, via TexasEscapes.com |
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| Entryway photograph courtesy of Barclay Gibson, via TexasEscapes.com |
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| 1919 photograph courtesy of the Texas Historical Commission |
