Bell County Courthouses

An Austin architect, Jasper N. Preston, designed the third courthouse, and the commissioners authorized $65,000 in bonds in November 1883. Temple, then two years old, petitioned to take the courthouse and lost. Four clocks topped the dome, the county paid a man four dollars a month to keep them running, and pigeons perching on the long wooden hands kept them from agreeing. The tower and statue of Justice came down in 1950. Replicas of both went back up in December 1999 during a restoration.

What the plaque says

Bell County Courthouses Three Bell County courthouses have stood on this site--part of the 120 acres given by Matilda F. Connell Allen for the location of the county seat. Prior to erection of a courthouse, early official business of the county (created and organized, 1850) was handled in blacksmith shop of John Danley, the first chief justice. His anvil (in one of the three original buildings in Belton) was the council table. First courthouse was a one-story (16' x 18') frame building erected by contractor Thomas T. Havens in 1851, at cost of $199, financed by sale of city lots. On April 1, 1858, the commissioners contracted for a two-story (50' x 60') native limestone building with intersecting main halls, fireplaces on each floor, double doors and other fine details. Cost ($13,625) was so resented that none of the commissioners were re-elected. Simeon Bramlet was the contractor. This building was in service from Dec. 1, 1859, until 1884. Cornerstone for third courthouse was laid on June 24, 1884; structure was completed by May 30, 1885. Ben D. Lee contracted to build it for $64.965. It has been improved at later dates. The county clerk's office was fireproofed in 1898. In 1950, there was extensive remodeling and modernizing. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 7.5 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Mother Neff State Park — 19 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.

More markers nearby

• Peter Hansbrough Bell — steps away
• William Whitaker Reed — steps away
• Cochran, Blair and Potts Department Store — steps away
• Site of Early Belton House — steps away