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ATASCOSA
COUNTY COURTHOUSE
County Seat - Jourdanton, TexasAtascosa
County has had four courthouses:
1912
- Jourdanton
1885
- Pleasanton
1857 - Pleasanton
1856
- Amphion |
The
1912 Atascosa County Courthouse
TE Photo, 2002 |
The Present Atascosa
County Courthouse
Jourdanton,
TexasDate -
1912
Architect - Henry T. Phelps
Style - Mission-style
Material -
Brick and stone |
Atascosa
County Courthouse as it appeared in 1939
Photo courtesy of TXDoT |
| "An
oil painting of the 1885 Atascosa County courthouse that stood in Pleasanton.
The legend* says that when the county seat was moved
to Jourdanton in 1910, this building was lifted from its foundation and moved
there. It has since been demolished. This painting hangs in the Longhorn Museum
in Pleasanton, Texas."
- Terry
Jeanson, October 30, 2006 |
Atascosa County Courthouse Forum
*I was pleased to find your page with several renderings
of the Atascosa County court house, past and present. I was rather amused at the
"legend" you repeated about moving the court house from Pleasanton to Jourdanton.
Actually, only the records were moved (stolen, as I heard it ) and the old
court house in Pleasanton was still in its place when I was a child, serving as
the Pleasanton City Hall. By the time it was demolished to make way for the widening
of US 281 through town in the mid 1950's, the upper floor had been condemned,
as I recall, but the city offices were still housed there. The present city hall
stands on what is left of the old grounds of the Pleasanton Court House.
That "legend" may be a version of a story a gentleman told on himself . When he
first came to Atascosa County, it was about the time that the county seat had
been moved, and feelings were still very raw about that event. It so happened
that at least two other county seats were being moved about the same time, and
this hapless gentleman suggested to a group of Pleasanton citizens at a "friendly"
gabfest that perhaps they should just put all the courthouses on railroad cars
and roll them around that way until they decided for sure where they should go.
He said that he hardly got the words out of his mouth before every man within
hearing of him had drawn their pistols on him. Only after the most abject and
profuse apology was he able to convince those men to holster their weapons. He
never made that mistake again. I happened to have read this story just today in
a book published by the Atascosa History Committee in 1985. Thanks again for a
good page. - Marcy Porter, May 06, 2008 |
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| Across
the street from the current Atascosa County Courthouse in Jourdanton is the replica
of the first Atascosa County Courthouse (c.1856) at Amphion.
Photo courtesy
Terry
Jeanson, October 2004 |
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