Las Moras Masonic Lodge Building

Kinney County governed itself from borrowed rooms before this building existed. County officials first met in Oscar Brackett's home in 1873, and Brackettville became the seat. Meetings then moved to the Kartes and Company building until the county finished a courthouse of its own in 1878-79. The larger courthouse that replaced it was designed by L. L. Thurmon and Company of Dallas. This earlier building stands on private property, south of the present courthouse, and the marker is at its corner.

What the plaque says

Las Moras Masonic Lodge Building Built in 1878-1879 to serve as the first County-owned Courthouse for Kinney County. This structure served that purpose for thirty-two years. In 1911 it became the headquarters of the Las Moras Masonic Lodge, which was chartered in 1876. While the Lodge used the second floor, the ground floor was leased to the U.S. Postal Service for the Brackettville Post Office from 1918 to 1983. Over the years the building has also served as office space for Kinney County government departments. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Clark and the Old Guardhouse Museum — 0.5 mi
  The 1852 post at Las Moras Springs, home from 1872 to 1914 of the Black Seminole scouts, now a gated resort with its old guardhouse open as a museum on weekends.
• Kickapoo Cavern State Park — 21 mi
  A lightly developed former ranch on the Kinney-Edwards line with twenty caves, a Saturday tour into a 1,400-foot cavern and a summer bat flight from Stuart Bat Cave.

More markers nearby

• Fort Clark, U.S.A. — steps away
• Military Roads in Texas — 0.2 mi
• Carver School Grounds — 0.3 mi
• Fort Clark — 0.3 mi