Concho County Courthouse

Duane's take

The official marker for the Concho County Courthouse tells it this way, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Now, by 1886, Concho County had had enough of whatever crude early structure they'd been making do with. It was time for something permanent.

Something that would last. So they brought in architects, and not just any architects. Brothers.

F.E. and Oscar Ruffini, men who had already left their mark on the state of Texas in a serious way. These were the same brothers who planned and constructed the first main building at the University of Texas. So when Concho County wanted a courthouse built right, they knew who to call.

Here's where the story gets quiet for a moment, though. F.E. Ruffini lived only long enough to draw the plans.

He got that far, set the vision down on paper, and then he was gone. It fell to his brother Oscar to see it through, to take those plans and turn them into stone walls and a standing building. And Oscar did exactly that.

What rose up in 1886 was a courthouse built in the French Second Empire style, which on its own would be notable enough. But the Ruffinis, or Oscar finishing what his brother started, made a choice that sets this building apart even within that style. The stone.

Rusticated stone, rough-faced and honest, quarried from just a few miles away. That combination, French Second Empire architecture dressed in local rusticated stone, is unusual. The marker says so plainly.

And there it stands in Concho County, the first permanent courthouse, built from the land right around it, finished by a brother honoring a brother's plans.

What the marker says

First permanent courthouse for Concho County. Built in 1886, replacing crude early structure. Architects were the brothers F.E. and Oscar Ruffini, who also planned and constructed first main building at the University of Texas. As F.E. Ruffini lived only long enough to draw plans for this courthouse, his brother completed it. Architecture is "French Second Empire". Use of rusticated stone -- which came from a quarry only a few miles away -- is unusual in this style. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962