Five Courthouses of Houston County

The courthouse on the square today is the fifth. Houston County applied to the Public Works Administration for partial funding on February 18, 1938, and a $120,000 bond election helped qualify it. Blum Hester was the architect, and Eckert-Fair Construction Company of Dallas won the bid in November, the month the 1883 building came down. The Moderne limestone design has a clock on each side. The cornerstone went in during July 1939, and the cost passed $180,000. It became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2000 and a National Register listing in 2010.

What the plaque says

Five Courthouses of Houston County On June 12, 1837, President Sam Houston authorized the formation of Houston County, the first newly created county in the Republic of Texas. Andrew W. Gossett (1812-1890) donated land, which included this square, for the townsite. He and his father, Elijah, both veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto, named the county for Sam Houston, and the county seat for David Crockett, a former Tennessee friend. The first county courthouse, a log structure which served as a fortress during Indian attacks, was in use at this location by 1838. A brick building, which replaced the first courthouse in 1851, was destroyed by a fire of mysterious origin in 1865. County business was conducted in the L.E. Downes building on the southwest corner of the square until a two-story frame structure was finished in 1869. A jail addition burned in 1871 while it was under construction. The third courthouse and jail burned in 1882. The fourth courthouse, completed at this site in 1883, was razed in 1938. While this three-story structure was under construction, county business was conducted in the Crockett Hotel. In 1975 the third-floor jail was moved to a separate building and the fifth Houston County courthouse was remodeled. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 27 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Crockett — steps away
• Miller-Spinks-Mayes Property — steps away
• Site of the Crockett Hotel — steps away
• First National Bank of Crockett — steps away