The Heart of Bexar County

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Before and after restoration of the
131st District Courtroom.
beautiful wood. The Hidalgo Foundation raised an
additional $500,000 to restore the furniture.
County Clerk Gerry Rickhoff announced that his
office would put up a matching grant of $250,000.
Two years later in August 2004, we competed
Judge Specia’s courtroom and had restored the
historic furniture. The courtroom now looked like
it did when it was originally built. Judge Specia
gave demonstrations of how the new technology
worked. Witnesses could teleconference in and
judges and lawyers would have any information
they needed at their fingertips. It was a big step
forward in the administration of justice.
The following year on March 4, 2005, the
Hidalgo Foundation held its first ever gala in the
courthouse to thank our donors and show them
the work we had completed. We also displayed
numerous historic documents, including the
marriage contract between Jim Bowie and
Ursula Veramendi. Several pieces of restored
historic furniture were also displayed.
As the crowd gathered on the first floor, I gave
a short speech and unveiled a large beautifully
artistic wall board that listed all the major
contributors. I hope the next time you enter the
courthouse you will look at the many names and
foundations listed that contributed to the
courthouse restoration and to the children’s
courts. The generosity and support of these
individuals are a testament to the way Texans
honor their past and take care of future
generations. On behalf of the children and adults
that have benefited from the contributions, I
would like to say a heartfelt thank you!
We served food and drinks to hundreds of
people on the first three floors. We also took
them on a tour of the Children’s Court and the
restored 225th Court. The event that evening
was a great success, and everyone stayed and
enjoyed seeing the many improvements.
Subsequent to the restoration of Specia’s
courtroom, we have restored seven other
courtrooms and the original Court of Appeals
courtroom on the fifth floor. We also added five
new courtrooms. We have also restored four
public corridors leading to the courtrooms in
addition to installing new smoke/alarm
detection, sprinkler systems, HVAC, electrical,
IT and phone systems. The historic stairways
have also been restored and a new fire stair that
expands to the fifth floor was built.
3 6 F T H E H E A R T O F B E X A R C O U N T Y