Chaves County Courthouse (Lea horse corral site, old Courthouse site) (401 N. Main). In the 1870s Captain Joseph Lea, "The Father of Roswell," built a large horse corral with adobe walls five feet (1.5 m) high on this site across Main Street from his home. When the Territorial Legislature split Chaves County off from Lincoln County in 1889, Captain Lea donated this full city block of land for the Courthouse.
The Legislature named Chaves County in honor of Jose Francisco Chaves (1833-1904), the son and grandson of governors of Nuevo Mexico, who reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Union Army fighting first Confederates, then Navajos. Chaves later became a rancher, a lawyer, and New Mexico’s Territorial Delegate to the United States Congress from 1865 to 1871. He remained a powerful leader in the New Mexico Republican Party until an unknown assassin shot him in 1904. A bronze bust of Francisco Chaves by sculptor Robert Summers, who also sculpted the large statue of John Chisum across the street in Pioneer Plaza, stands in the Rotunda of the new portion of today’s Courthouse.
In 1911, Chaves County officials hired the Rapp brothers, architects from Trinidad, Colorado, who had recently completed the National Guard Armory and the master plan for the buildings and campus of NMMI, to design a new Courthouse, this current one. Both the Rapp brothers and County officials went “all out” on this new Courthouse, designed in the then-popular Beaux Arts Classical style. The County spent the outrageous amount of $164,000 on its construction completed in 1912, the year New Mexico became the 47th state.
The Rapp brothers’ design included all sorts of shields, medallions, garlands, and other folderols around both rectangular and arched windows, and called for green terra-cotta tiles to create the only domed courthouse in New Mexico. They even decorated the ribs between the tiled areas of the dome with garlands—check it out with your binoculars. Amazingly, the Rapp brothers’ original design was even more ornate!
Word is, the people of Chaves County spared no expense on their Courthouse because statehood was fast approaching and they knew the Federal Government would take over all county financial obligations as soon as New Mexico became a state. Therefore, their fancy new Courthouse would cost the people of Chaves County nothing!
Builders also constructed a separate, but much less ornate, jail behind the Courthouse at the same time. In the 1930s a jail annex was built that connected the jail to the Courthouse and also contained the Sheriff’s Office. It was here that Mack Brazel came to report finding strange debris in July 1947. A few months later, future Grand Ole Opry and Country Music Hall of Fame star Leftie Frizzell wrote his first two hits, “I Love You a Thousand Ways” and “If You’ve Got the Money, Honey, I’ve Got the Time” while serving that time in this lockup.
A separate Juvenile Detention Center was added on the southeast corner of the Courthouse in 1974, on the spot where the only legal execution in Chaves County’s history had taken place. In 1896 two Hispanics, Eugenio Aragon and Antonio Gonzales, were convicted of killing a local Anglo cowboy, Charley Vansycle, during a robbery. They were sentenced to hang. One committed suicide in the Chaves County Jail, but Sheriff Haynes executed the other on September 24, 1896. Prior to the hanging, Sheriff Haynes constructed a high fence around the gallows to shield the public from this spectacle, although some claimed the sheriff built the fence so he could charge admission.
Today, the Juvenile Detention Center remains but the Chaves County Jail and Annex at the rear of the Courthouse were demolished in 1996 when a new Chaves County Detention Center (at East Brasher Road and South Atkinson Avenue) was completed.
The front half of the Courthouse today is the same one completed in 1912. The back half of the current Courthouse was added in matching style in 2004. This enlarged building holds a total of nine courtrooms for District and Magistrate Courts, as well as various county offices—and some of the nicest public restrooms in Roswell. The District Attorney’s Office occupies the basement, where some have claimed to hear the ghostly laughter of children playing.
Although the Courthouse has been the scene of many interesting events, the visit of soon-to-be-indicted Vice President Spiro Agnew has probably drawn the largest crowd. One October afternoon in 1972, with the Courthouse’s dominating central entrance as a backdrop, Vice-President Agnew campaigned to send Pete Dominici to his first term in the Senate and touted the virtues of President Richard Nixon to a cheering crowd of 8,500 supporters standing “rib-to-rib” on the lawn. Agnew made no mention of those “nattering nabobs of negativity” attacking his boss. Instead the discussion focused on the citizens of Roswell and Chaves County who “have just stood out in Republicanism and Republican activity”— and still do today.
This same impressive entrance with its broad marble steps topped by massive Ionic columns is just decorative these days. The only public entrance to the Courthouse is around the back on Virginia Avenue, but the strict dress code will keep most tourists out—no shorts, no sweats, no tank tops, no flip-flops, no cell phones, in addition to no weapons. 622-2212. Open M-F 8-12, 1-5, closed SS and holidays.
Information scource: http://www.cleananpress.com/roswell/maincentral.htm
