Brooks County Courthouse

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Brooks County Courthouse. Now settle in, because this building has a story worth hearin'. It starts, as so many good Texas stories do, with a county that didn't exist yet.

Brooks County was created in 1911, and right away they named it for James A. Brooks, a State Legislator born in 1855 who would go on to live all the way to 1944. And here's a detail the marker wants you to notice: Brooks didn't just lend his name to the place and walk off.

He served as the first county judge. The man was there from the very beginning. Now, every new county needs somewhere to do its business, and for a while, Brooks County was making do.

County offices occupied rented quarters. You can picture it, a fledgling county government paying somebody else's rent, squeezing into borrowed rooms, trying to look official. But that arrangement wasn't going to last forever.

A courthouse was coming. Before that could happen, though, somebody had to give the county a place to put it. That somebody was Edward C.

Lasater, founder of Falfurrias, who deeded the courthouse site itself to the commissioners court. The land, as a gift, handed over so the county could plant its roots for good. Then in 1914, they built the thing.

A proper brick courthouse, and not just any design. They brought in Alfred Giles, a San Antonio architect born in 1853, who died in 1920, and who had made a career of planning numerous public buildings across Texas and into Northern Mexico. Giles knew what a courthouse was supposed to say about a place.

And what this building said about Brooks County was: we're here, we're permanent, and we mean business. That brick courthouse still stands today, the same one Giles drew up, the one Lasater made possible, the one built for the county that James A. Brooks helped bring into being and then served himself.

Some buildings are just buildings. This one is the whole origin story, set in brick.

What the marker says

Created in 1911, Brooks County was named for State Legislator James A. Brooks (1855-1944), who served as the first county judge. Edward C. Lasater, founder of Falfurrias, deeded this courthouse site to the commissioners court. County offices occupied rented quarters before construction of this edifice in 1914. The brick courthouse was designed by San Antonio architect Alfred Giles (1853-1920), who planned numerous public buildings in Texas and Northern Mexico. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977