Denton County Courthouse DOME

Slam made the present-day Denton County Courthouse dome. He saved the top piece from the original cupola to be reused by request of the Denton Historic Committee. He also assisted with copper under the dome (ball part) with the help of his friend, Mark P.

He started with 14 flat sheets of 4×8 copper. All the work was soldering. I reduced the old dome in pieces, designed and made my own templates. Long story short: the ball is two half-shells, each with many cone-type shapes all soldered together, turning into half-shells with a lip cut and then bent out.

Each half-shell is soldered onto 133-inch copper pieces forming a circle. Then the ball was soldered onto the copper piece underneath. When completed, we took a 200-ft boom to raise and lower it on top of the courthouse.

Sad fact: I was never paid in full. The company that hired me left town. In 1985, I was new to Denton, and so sad I didn’t get my pay or all the pictures I took. But because I loved Denton, well… I stayed.

The reason for the “cool looking” outfit is because the temperature once inside the wooden dome will be 100-130 degrees.