Blanco County Courthouse

Duane's take

The way I tell it, this one comes straight from the official marker for the Blanco County Courthouse. Now settle in, because this building has a story worth hearin'. By 1890, the seat of government in Blanco County had picked up and moved.

Left Blanco behind and set itself down in Johnson City. That's where things now lived, officially. But for the next quarter century, the county made do without a permanent courthouse to call its own.

Twenty-six years is a long time to keep a government runnin' without a proper home base. Then came 1916. And when Blanco County finally decided to build something worthy of the occasion, they didn't go halfway.

They brought in Henry T. Phelps, an architect out of San Antonio, to draw it up right. What Phelps designed was a Classical Revival structure in limestone, the kind of building that announces itself.

Doric columns out front. A domed cupola reaching up toward the sky. The sort of courthouse that makes you feel like government might actually mean something.

Now here's the detail that'll make you sit up a little straighter. The man they hired as contractor was a stonemason named James Waterston. And James Waterston had not just rolled in from down the road.

He had come all the way from Scotland to Texas back in 1883, and the reason he came, the work that brought him across an ocean, was to help build the state Capitol itself. Think about that for a moment. A man who laid stone for the Texas Capitol then turned around, decades later, and put his hands on this courthouse in Johnson City.

The same craftsman, the same devotion to stone and permanence, carryin' forward. The 1916 Blanco County Courthouse stands as the first permanent courthouse built after that seat of government moved to Johnson City. Classical columns, a limestone facade, a cupola pointin' at the clouds, and the fingerprints of a Scotsman who helped build a Capitol.

Some buildings are just buildings. This one kept its receipts.

What the marker says

Designed by San Antonio architect Henry T. Phelps, the 1916 Blanco County Courthouse was the first permanent courthouse built after the seat of government moved from Blanco to Johnson City in 1890. Serving as contractor for the project was stonemason James Waterston, who had come from Scotland to Texas in 1883 to aid in the construction of the state Capitol. The Classical Revival limestone structure features Doric columns and a domed cupola. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983