DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Bandera County Courthouse. Now, Bandera County got itself organized back in 1856, and for a good long while after that, folks were conducting county business out of whatever quarters they could scrape together. Makeshift offices.
Makeshift courtrooms. A county doing serious work in not-so-serious surroundings. That went on for decades, if you can picture it.
Then, finally, between 1890 and 1891, they put up something worthy of the name. A real courthouse. The first permanent one the county had ever known.
The style is described as a local version of the Second Renaissance Revival, which sounds grand, and by all accounts it looks the part. The white limestone used to build it was quarried right there in the area, local stone for a local landmark. Now here is the detail that tends to stop people cold.
The plans for this building were drawn up by a man named B.F. Trester of San Antonio. A professional.
A draftsman putting his name to the design of a county courthouse. And what did Bandera County pay him for those plans? Five dollars.
Not five hundred. Five dollars. The contractors who actually raised the building were Ed Braden and Sons.
They took those five-dollar plans and built something that's still standing. In 1966, the interior was remodeled and a wing was added, giving the old building a little more room to work with. But the heart of it, that white limestone shell born from a five-dollar blueprint, that's the Bandera County Courthouse.
What the marker says
First permanent courthouse for county, which was organized in 1856, but used makeshift quarters for offices and courtrooms until this building was erected 1890-91. Style is local version of the Second Renaissance Revival. White limestone for the structure was quarried locally. B.F. Trester of San Antonio drew the plans--for $5. Contractors: Ed Braden & Sons. Interior was remodeled and a wing added in 1966. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1972.