'LEANING COURTHOUSE' OF FRANKSTON Texas


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Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

Transcribed by Beverly Odom. Submitted by Scott Fitzgerald -
scottfitzgerald@tyler.net East Texas Genealogical Society,
1st Vice-President 17 September 2007

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'LEANING COURTHOUSE' OF FRANKSTON DOOMED
by Phil Dibert
Courier-Times-Telegraph East Texas Editor

Frankston, March 21 - Italy has its famous "Leaning Tower of Pisa" which is
tilted at an incredible slang and has puzzled mathematicians for centuries.

Frankston, however, has perhaps the only leaning courthouse in East Texas.
Since 1929, when it was moved to its present site on Weldon Street, it has
sagged steadily to the left, in the direction of Tyler.

Now this deplorable condition is about to be remedied.  The venerable
structure will be torn down this week, brick by brick and board by board and
a brand-new building erected in its place at the same location.

The present building, a two-story white frame 60 feet long and 24 feet wide
was constructed in 1912 and has been used for several activities down
through the years.
1.  Masonic lodge meetings upstairs.
2.  Justice of the peace court downstairs.
3.  Religious meetings.
4.  County elections.

The building was originally intended as a meeting place for William Foster
Lodge No. 312 AF & AM founded at Fosterville, seven miles from Frankston, in
1869.  The lodge was named for an early East Texas settler for whose family
Fosterville was named.  Later the lodge was moved to Brushy Creek and then
after the railroad came, to Frankston in 1907.

Joe Cooper, past Worshipful Master of the lodge, is now acting secretary of
the organization and has an intimate knowledge of the 41 year old building
with the pronounced list to port (that's nautical talk for the lean to the
left).  It seems that the justice courthouse Masonic hall stood perfectly
upright from 1912 until 1929 at its original location on Elm Street process
of transferring it.

Then, says Cooper, they decided to move it to Weldon Street in 929.  The
movers, however made two blunders in the ponderous process of transferring
it:

1.	They set it down with the back door facing the street and the front door
facing somebody's backyard.

2.	They failed to support it properly, so that it soon began to slant due
northeast.

Variously referred to by Frankston residents as "the Masonic Hall" and "The
Courthouse,"  the lopsided structure was much in demand despite its angular
affliction and is regarded as a real landmark by the citizenry.

Last week, Dave Vermillion and W. F. (Boots) Gouger, Frankston carpenters,
has begun dismantling operations on the building.  They had propped up the
left (or right, depending on the way you look at it) side with long beams.
Inside, they had erected other beams to support the sagging ceiling.
Overhead in the second floor was the slanting room in which the Masons have
been meeting.  The furniture will be removed and the Masons will gather at
another place until the new building is completed.

The new structure, says Cooper will be 50 feet long by 24 feet wide and will
have modern furnishing throughout.  Any reclaimable lumber from the old
building will be used in the new.

But you may depend on one thing, Cooper says.  The new building will be
straight as the giant oak trees beside it.

It's all right for Frankston folks to have a slight leaning toward Tyler but
certainly they don't want to overdo it.