Goliad County Courthouse

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Now, some buildings just stand there. But the Goliad County Courthouse, it has earned every stone in its walls.

The county itself goes back to 1836, and by the time they broke ground on this particular courthouse, it was already the fourth one they'd built. Four courthouses. That ought to tell you something about the kind of history this county has been through.

This one went up in 1894, and when the bill came due, it came due precise: sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars, and ninety-five cents. Not eighty-nine dollars. Not eighty-eight dollars even.

Ninety-five cents. Somebody was keeping close accounts in Goliad. Now here's a detail worth savoring.

When they built this fourth courthouse, they didn't just haul in fresh material and call it done. They pulled limestone and brick right out of the 1870 courthouse, the third one, and worked it into the new walls. The old holding up the new.

That's a kind of stubbornness you don't see much anymore. Then came 1902, and a cyclone hit. And when the storm passed and folks started picking through what was left of the damage, the courthouse became a hospital.

Whatever it needed to be, it was. The county leaned on it, and it held. It took another forty years before the building took a real wound.

A 1942 storm came through and tore off the central clock tower, just took it right off the top of the building. Gone. But the courthouse stood.

They enlarged it in 1964, and through all of it, the carved staircases survived. The walnut wainscots survived. Some things, if you build them right and you refuse to let them go, they just keep on survivin'.

That's the Goliad County Courthouse.

What the marker says

Built 1894. Cost $67,888.95. Limestone and brick from 1870 courthouse were used in this, the fourth one built since county's creation in 1836. Used as hospital after 1902 cyclone. A 1942 storm tore off central clock tower. Enlarged in 1964. Preserving carved staircases, walnut wainscots. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1964.