Coryell County Courthouse

Architect W. C. Dodson solved a structural problem with the tower. He placed the district courtroom beside it instead of beneath it, which let the masonry walls run straight to the ground and carry the weight. Tom Lovell of Denton held the construction contract. The north and south porticos differ in scale and treatment, the south with paired corner columns and the north with single columns, and each pediment has the five-pointed Texas star carved in contrasting stone. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and designated a State Antiquities Landmark in 1981.

What the plaque says

Coryell County Courthouse An outstanding example of Second Empire Victorian style, often seen in Texas Courthouse design. Erected in 1897 on land donated by early settler R. G. Grant. Architect for this third Coryell Courthouse was W. C. Dodson; builder,Tom Lovell. Limestone and red sandstone blocks were precut to the exact size at quarry, then hauled here by horse-drawn wagons. At each entrance are columns in Roman Corinthian style; and over the east entrance are columns in Roman Corinthian style; and over the east entrance is builder's mark of an owl. Statues on the roof represent "Justice." Noted trials have been held in this building. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mother Neff State Park — 18 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.
• Bosque Museum — 26 mi
  A Clifton museum holding what it calls the largest repository of Norwegian artifacts in the South and Southwest, with Bosque County finds some 10,000 years old and a log cabin built by the Olson family.
• Hamilton County Courthouse — 29 mi
  A limestone courthouse of 1886-87 on the Hamilton square, built after the county's 1878 courthouse burned, enlarged in the early 1930s and rededicated in 2012 after restoration.
• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 33 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.

More markers nearby

• Gatesville — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Gatesville — 0.2 mi
• Lincolnville Community — 2.0 mi
• Fort Gates — 3.7 mi