Hall County Courthouse

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just passin' it along. Hall County, out here in the Texas Panhandle, didn't just appear overnight with a courthouse already standin' proud. No, it took time.

The Texas Legislature created Hall County in 1876, but the county didn't even get itself organized until 1890, with Memphis named as the county seat. Now, once a county gets organized, it needs a place to do its business. So that same year, 1890, they threw up a frame building facing the town square.

Modest. Functional. Got the job done.

That frame building served until 1893, when they replaced it with something more serious: a two-story brick building, right on this very site. That one stood until 1922. Two courthouses, come and gone, before the one standing here today ever broke ground.

When the commissioners court finally set about building the current structure, they had to hold their meetings over at the Hall County National Bank while construction was underway. County business doesn't wait for concrete to cure. The firm they hired for the job was Page and Brother, out of Austin.

And what Page and Brother gave Hall County was a Classical Revival building: three stories, raised basement, reinforced concrete and structural clay tile underneath, finished with dark brick and cast stone veneer on the outside. Every elevation of that building carries cast stone fluted composite order columns, and those columns support entablatures and pediments right at the entrances. It is, to put it plainly, a building that means to be taken seriously.

Hall County went from a frame building facing a dusty square to this, and the marker that tells the story was recognized in 2008. Some things take time. And some things, once they're built right, just stand.

What the marker says

In 1876, the Texas Legislature created Hall County, which organized in 1890 with Memphis as county seat. Two courthouses - a frame building facing the town aquare (1890-93) and a two-story brick building on this site (1893-1922) - preceded the current Classical Revival Building. During construction, commissioners court met in the Hall County National Bank. Architectural firm Page and Brother of Austin designed this three-story building with raised basement, built of reinforced concrete and structural clay tile with dark brick and cast stone veneer. All elevations have cast stone fluted composite order columns supporting entablatures and pediments at the entrances. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2008