Old Jack County Courthouse Cornerstone

This cornerstone was laid on November 25, 1885, for a courthouse that stood until demolition began at the end of 1938, not one razed that year. The county had accepted plans by Dallas architect James E. Flanders and hired Strain, Risley and Winburn of Henrietta. Around 1900 the commissioners had iron bars set into the cracking walls, and by the 1930s the plumbing smelled of ammonia. A federal grant of $90,000 and local bonds paid for a new courthouse, the stone was opened and inventoried, and much of the old masonry became Jacksboro's city hall.

What the plaque says

Old Jack County Courthouse Cornerstone Removed 1885 from third Jack County Courthouse when building was razed. Mounted here in 1966. Old Courthouse was of native limestone, quarried in Jacksboro. For its day, workmanship and stone of finest quality. Bell is also a relic of the third courthouse. It was part of the mechanism in the building's clock tower, and was mounted in frame here by Jacksboro firemen. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 0.7 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.
• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 26 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.

More markers nearby

• Jack County — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Jacksboro — steps away
• Birthplace of Texas 4-H Clubs — steps away
• Butterfield Stage Line — 0.3 mi