Kerr County Courthouse

As I was preparing a program on historic houses of Kerrville (or "vintage houses" as real estate people like to say), I came across a couple of references to a courthouse fire in 1926.   According to these sources, the 1886 courthouse burned in 1926, which was why the current courthouse was erected. This surprised me, so I went to http://www.newspaperarchive.com and did some reading in old Kerrville newspapers. 

I learned that by 1925 the 1886 courthouse was separating in places and needed major repairs.  Commissioners also expressed concern that because there was no fireproof vault, a fire could cause loss of records.  After several months discussion, a bond issue for a new, more secure, courthouse with fireproof vault was approved in December 1925.
Construction began in 1926.  When the courthouse was finished, the records were successfully transferred from old to new.

The old courthouse was taken down in the fall of 1927 and into the late winter 1928.  It took several months.

The Kerrville Mountain Sun, January 26, 1928 reported  "[c]rushed stone from the old courthouse and jail buildings will be used as base materials for the drives and parkway" (of the new courthouse.)
There was a proposal to use the old lumber from the courthouse to build a gymnasium at Tivy.  

Schreiner University's stone wall came from the old courthouse and jail.

The March 1, 1928, Kerrville Times listed all the people who bought salvaged material from the old courthouse and jail. There was a lot of salvage.

There was a lot of detail about the construction of the new courthouse and the demolition of the old, but I don't find anything, anywhere, in any newspaper, about a courthouse fire. If there were a fire, you'd think it would be in the paper.  It just didn't happen.