Franklin County Courthouse

L. L. Thurman designed the courthouse, and L. R. Wright and Company built it, with its small two-story jail, in 1912. Thurman also designed the Jeff Davis and Kinney County courthouses, both on the National Register of Historic Places. The Classical Revival building rises three stories, with columned, pedimented porticoes on two sides and an octagonal domed clock tower. The courthouse and jail were listed on the National Register in January 2006, and the courthouse became a Texas State Antiquities Landmark in 2010.

What the plaque says

Franklin County Courthouse Mt. Vernon was established in 1849 on land donated by Stephen and Rebecca Keith, and a public square was surveyed in the 24-acre plat. When Franklin County was created in 1875, Mt. vernon was voted county seat, and a wooden building northeast of the square was used as the first courthouse. Lots on the block north of the square were soon purchased for $150 for a 2-story wooden jail costing $1,600. In 1878 a brick courthouse was built on the square at a cost of $5,500. In 1910 county commissioners ordered an election to decide the building of a new courthouse and jail. The commissioners' court then rescinded that order, called for construction warrants to be issued without election, and levied a property tax to pay for the new buildings. Citizens filed suit against the county, and in January, 1911, the district court prevented construction from proceeding. An appellate court overturned the decision and by December, 1911, the Texas Supreme Court had affirmed this method of financing county buildings. Within days of the landmark decision, Franklin County commissioners awarded a contract to L. R. Wright & Co. to construct this courthouse and adjacent jail. The buildings were completed in 1912 at a cost of $55,000. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 12 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 28 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• Joshua Foster Johnson — 0.5 mi
• Franklin County — 0.8 mi
• Ripley Massacre — 4.2 mi
• Gray Rock Cemetery — 5.8 mi