Somehow every time we have family or friends come to visit us in Texas, we always end up traipsing around to visit all the small towns around us. Usually there are cute shops, a darling downtown square and some restaurant with a trendy name like “The Twisted Egg”, or “Twisted Fork” or “The Twisted Keg”. “Twisted” is apparently big right now in small towns here in the south. I really don’t understand the fascination. Anywho…our favorite small town is Southlake, Tx. We love the outdoor mall that surrounds the courthouse, and they have a Starbucks, which is an absolute necessity with visitors in town, since we always stay up long past all the ungodly hours that decent people sleep in. Southlake has a feeling of some small quaint town in Italy, probably due to the gorgeous fountain and vine covered Loggias around the fountain. We have visited Southlake Town center often, and so we decided to venture out further to a little downtown square in Waxahachie. After driving for almost an hour, we stopped for a bathroom stop in Taco Bell on Main St. You know you are in a small town, when you enter a restaurant, and all five families in the restaurant stare at you and wonder who you are. We finally arrived at the square and right away one of the first things that you notice is the amazing courthouse. Apparently there is a legend about this courthouse that I think is a fun story, so I will share what I know about it.
Ellis County Courthouse in 1939 *picture courtesy of TxDot
As the legend is told, this guy, Harry- some say he was a German immigrant and some say Italian-at any rate, he was a stone carver in town with the rest of the workers who were commissioned to work on the Courthouse. Young Harry met and fell in love with this beautiful girl, Mabel-who happened to be the granddaughter of the boarding house owner where the guy was living. The myth says that the affair was a destined to be a doomed love affair, and although Harry was deeply in love with Mabel, she changed her mind about him (probably had something to do with him leaving stinky socks around his room and the grandmother complaining to Mabel about it-fyi-what girl wants a stinky sock man as a husband? Haha). Some say that Mabel’s mom was not at all happy about Harry and wasn’t friendly with him and made things difficult for the lovers. At the height of Harry’s love for Mabel, he sculpted beautiful likenesses of her face on the porticos, and the whole town was buzzing with talk of who the lucky maiden was whose face would forever appear etched in stone.
The many faces of Mabel
Alas, like her stone face, she had a stone heart, and with every new face that poor Harry sculpted, her face gradually grew more and more grotesque and gargoyle-ish with Harry’s bitter and broken heart.
Courthouse today
Sadly, the story ends with her marriage to some notable and more affluent gentleman from the town, but their love story will live on in Harry’s sculptures. (Ps. Some say that this story is all folklore, but some say its true-I prefer to find romance in life, and believe its true-it makes such a sad and romantic story!)
We made our way around the courthouse, and had fun looking at all the beautiful architecture and sculpting work around it. Then we made our way through several Antique Malls where I debated whether or not to buy a possible ivory bone necklace-I ended up not buying it, but now think I should have (if it was real, it would have been worth a few hundred dollars!). We passed by a Law Office and I couldn’t help but laugh and take a few pictures. You know you are in a small town, when the local law office keeps all their paper work in boxes next to the front window where every passerby can read all the personal information printed on the papers. Not joking-here are pictures to prove it!
The Jones are suing the Smiths???? What?
Dallas Mambo 