| |
The
1908 Hays County Courthouse
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, June 2007 |
The Current Hays County Courthouse - San
Marcos, Texas
Date - 1908
Architect - C.H. Page & Bros.
Style - Beaux-Arts
Material
- Elgin buff and gray brick with limestone stringcourses.
On the eastside
entrance to the building is a beautiful 1907 fountain that includes an ankle-height
trough for dogs. |
Historical
Marker TextThe Courthouses
of Hays CountyWhen
Hays County originated in 1848, its one public building was a log church-schoolhouse
that had to serve as the courthouse, along with its other uses. Although the San
Marcos townsite,
platted in 1851, contained a court square donated to the county, the forfeiture
of a $2,000.00 criminal bond later gave the county funds for building, and in
1861 officials employed contractor C. F. Millett to erect on the Square a 36 x
40-foot, 2-story frame courthouse with a hearing room, jury rooms, and 4 offices.
That pine building burned in 1868, and county officials operated from rented quarters
until a courthouse of soft, locally quarried limestone was completed in 1871.
Damaged by earth shiftings, that 2-story, 45 x 53-foot building was razed (1881)
and replaced by a 50 x 60-foot, 2-story building of harder limestone designed
by F. E. Ruffini, architect for University of Texas buildings and for courthouses
in several other counties. After that 1882-83 structure lost its top story in
a fire on Feb. 28, 1908, it also was razed. The fourth and present courthouse,
in eclectic style, was designed by C. H. Page & Brother, of Austin.
Completed and accepted by the county court on Dec. 13, 1909, it has had interior
alterations; it was restored in 1972.
1974 |
 |
Hand-tinted
postcard of the 1908 Hays County Courthouse.
Postcard courtesy of Phyllis
C. Rummel |
|
1908 was a good year for architect C.H. Page and Brother (the way the company
name appears on the cornerstone). Their design was used for two nearly identical
courthouses - one here and one for Ft.
Bend County (Richmond). The primary difference is that Hays County declined
the clocks. Sometime after 1908 the company name was changed to the more traditional
"Page Brothers." |
The
1908 Hays County Courthouse as it appeared in 1939
Photo courtesy TXDoT |
Statue
of justice atop the Hays County courthouse.
Photo courtsy Terry
Jeanson, June 2007 |
| The 1908
re-building retained the cornerstone from the 1882 F.E. Ruffini courthouse and
positioned it in the foundation near the new cornerstone. |
| | The
1882 Cornerstone
F.E. Ruffini, Architect
Photo by John Troesser,
9-01 | | |
| | The
1908 cornerstone.
"C.H. Page and Bro." Architects
Photo
by John Troesser, 9-01 | |
|
| | A
Corinthian Capital
Photo by John Troesser, 9-01 | |
|
| | Southside
Entrance of the Hays County Courthouse
Photo by John Troesser, 9-01
| | |
| | Southside
entrance looking west.
Photo by John Troesser, 9-01 |
| |
| | The
courthouse annex.
The side with awnings faces the courthouse.
Photo by
John Troesser, 9-01 | |
|
Hays
County Courthouse aerial view
Photo courtesy of Paul Turner |
The 1882 Hays County
Courthouse
1900 post card courtesy THC | |
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