Site of 1896 Van Zandt County Courthouse

Contracts for the 1896 courthouse were let in August 1894, and builder Otto P. Kroeger finished in April 1896, 206 days past his deadline, according to Texas Escapes. By 1934 the county judged it inadequate, partly because the central rotunda served only as a passageway, not office space. On June 7, 1935 the commissioners authorized Judge E. C. Stovall to seek Public Works Administration aid, approved that December. The replacement, designed by Voelcker and Dixon and built by L. W. Wentzel of Sherman, cost $210,000 and was dedicated on June 10, 1937.

What the plaque says

Site of 1896 Van Zandt County Courthouse In 1894, the Van Zandt County Commissioners Court approved construction of a new brick courthouse at this site. Built between 1894 and 1896, it replaced a frame courthouse that had served the county since shortly after the Civil War. The noted San Antonio Architect J. Riely Gordon designed the 1896 courthouse in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Built on a Greek cross plan, it features a three-story main structure and a six-story central tower with a copper eagle statue at the top. The building was torn down in the 1930s. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Purtis Creek State Park — 16 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 24 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 26 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Governor Hogg Shrine — 29 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.

More markers nearby

• Oran Milo Roberts — steps away
• Cadwell Walton Raines — steps away
• John H. Reagan — steps away
• Dixie Hotel — steps away