Scurry County Courthouse Site and Building

The present courthouse is the second to stand on the square. Texas Escapes lists its architects as Lang and Witchell, who also designed the 1911 Cooke County courthouse, and calls its style Texas Renaissance in brick. A 1972 remodeling by architect Joseph D. Hinton encased it in granite, and its tower had been removed in 1950. The original cornerstone was preserved inside after the 1972 work, and the interior keeps none of its earlier appearance, including the district courtroom. The first courthouse of 1886 was built of locally fired brick.

What the plaque says

Scurry County Courthouse Site and Building Seat of justice for Scurry County, created 1876 and organized 1884. Local landholders--R. H. Allen, Fred Barnard, R. H. Looney, C. C. McGinnis, C. H. McGinnis, T. N. Nunn, W. H. Snyder and H. A. Travekes--donated lots in center of town for the courthouse square. Bonds for construction were purchased by local citizens. The original 2-story courthouse of locally made red brick was built in 1886 in northeast corner of the square, on site of a former buffalo trail. A jail, built farther northeast, was joined to courthouse by a corridor. Board sidewalks led to the building. A chain hitching rail for horses enclosed the square. The public windmill, focus for civic and social gatherings, was located in the center of the square. The commissioners court designated the boundaries of the four county precincts according to the north, east, south, and west lanes approaching the courthouse and these precinct boundaries are still used. The first courthouse was razed in 1911, after the present one was erected, 1909-11. This building had a dome, which was removed in 1950 remodeling. A part of the old square is now paved, as today's courthouse visitors require auto space rather than the watering trough and hitching rail. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Scurry County Museum — 2.6 mi
  Snyder's county museum on the Western Texas College campus, with the rifle used to shoot the white buffalo, an 1878 chuckwagon and the millionth barrel of the Canyon Reef oil boom.
• Heart of West Texas Museum — 23 mi
  Colorado City's museum in a restored downtown house, from a mammoth dug up at Lake Champion in 2001 to an Ice Age bison and the wartime telegrams sent to a local family.
• National WASP WWII Museum — 32 mi
  Hangar 1 at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, where the women of the WASP trained to fly every aircraft in the Army's arsenal in World War II, then waited thirty-three years to be called veterans.

More markers nearby

• Scurry County — steps away
• County Named for Texas Confederate William R. Scurry 1821-1864 — steps away
• Snyder National Bank — steps away
• Scurry County's Canyon Reef Oil Field — steps away