The Five Courthouses of Walker County

Eugene T. Heiner, who designed the fourth courthouse, was born in New York City on August 20, 1852, and settled in Houston in 1878, the Handbook of Texas says. He won the Galveston County Jail competition that May and designed courthouses in more than a dozen counties, among them Hallettsville in Lavaca County in 1897. He drew jails for about a dozen counties and a building at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He helped found the Texas State Association of Architects in 1886 and died in Houston on April 26, 1901, at 48.

What the plaque says

The Five Courthouses of Walker County The first Walker County Courthouse was available for county commissioners court meetings in July 1848; the building was finally completed in the center of the Huntsville public square in 1850. Because of a defective foundation, a second courthouse had replaced it by 1853. Repairs made in 1856 did not hold long. The design for the third county courthouse featured a grand jury house in the southwest corner of the grounds rather than inside the courthouse itself. Dubbed "The Little Courthouse," the grand jury house was completed and in use by 1861. Construction on the main courthouse was interrupted by the Civil War; it was finished in 1869 but major repairs were necessary within a couple of years. On the first day of 1888 the grand jury house was again called into service after the main courthouse burned. The commissioners court selected Eugene T. Heiner of Houston to design a new building. The construction contract was awarded to . N. Darling of Palestine. Darling set to work in late spring and erected Heiner's vision, replete with Victorian Gothic, Renaissance revival and Italianate details. That structure, the fourth Walker County Courthouse, gradually welcomed back the social and religious groups of the county. Other uses included the Walker County Fair of 1912 and a lecture series sponsored by Texas A & M University in 1914. The interior of the building burned in 1968. At that time, it was one of the 25 oldest courthouses in the state of Texas. The fifth Walker County Courthouse, a modern brick and steel structure, was completed in 1970. It remained in service at the dawn of the 21st century. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 31 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Henry Opera House — steps away
• Forrest Lodge No. 19, A.F. & A.M. — steps away
• Huntsville Springs — steps away
• Sallie E. Gibbs — steps away