Colfax County Courthouse/WPA Project

Colfax County New Mexico

SFT photo

Photo by Henry Ostrander

The Colfax County Courthouse is a five-story blond brick building typical of the 1936 Art Deco style architecture. Embellishments include glazed tile cornices, bas-reliefs depicting local farming, mining & cattle raising, art deco light fixtures and local cattlebrands are bronzed over exterior doors. Terrazzo floors, tile wainscoating, chipped-tile roof on top story and flat roofs on lower areas make for quite an elaborate building for this region.

The building is one of the more elaborately decorated courthouses on the E side of the state. Similar New Deal architecture can also be found in West Texas.