Courthouses of San Patricio County

The replica on this square exists because the town refused to vanish. After Sinton took the county seat in 1894, San Patricio declined, and in 1901 a citizens' group persuaded the legislature to disincorporate it. The old town sat all but forgotten for over seventy years. In 1972 Corpus Christi moved to annex land on the Nueces that would have given it jurisdiction over the old town; residents defeated the attempt and reincorporated on August 12, 1972. The San Patricio Restoration Society then raised money with St. Patrick's Day rattlesnake races to rebuild the 1872 courthouse.

What the plaque says

Courthouses of San Patricio County Eight structures have served as the seat of local government for the people of San Patricio County since its earliest settlement. A building known as the "Log Courthouse" was constructed in San Patricio in the early 1830's to serve the people of the San Patricio colony, although the county of San Patricio was not created until 1837. County records reveal that court was held in a new frame courthouse in 1853. Sometime prior to the civil war, construction began on a stone courthouse, but it was never completed due to the unsettled times of the war. Records show that many local residents used stones from the construction site to build chimneys for their homes. In 1872 a new courthouse was completed and housed court for the first time on July 15. Two jury rooms built on the square in 1876 were used as a courthouse after a fire in 1889 destroyed the 1872 building. Following the relocation of the county seat to Sinton in 1894, a new courthouse was built in that city. It was replaced by a new structure in 1927. A replica of the 1872 courthouse, built here on its original site using specifications in commissioners court records, was dedicated in 1986. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 2.9 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.
• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 9.8 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Texas State Aquarium — 25 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 25 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.

More markers nearby

• Josepha Rodriguez — steps away
• Battle of San Patricio — steps away
• San Patricio de Hibernia — steps away
• San Patricio County — steps away