Jeff Davis County Courthouse

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. Out here in Jeff Davis County, the courthouse square holds a building that does not whisper; it announces itself. We're talkin' about the Jeff Davis County Courthouse, and this story starts with a swap.

Back in 1880, the county made do with an adobe courthouse. Functional, sure. Humble, absolutely.

But by 1910, Jeff Davis County had something to say, and it said it in concrete and stone. The architectural firm of L. L.

Thurman and Co. out of Dallas drew up the plans, and the Falls City Construction Company all the way from Louisville, Kentucky came out to West Texas and put the thing up between 1910 and 1911. Now, when they say Classical Revival, they mean business. The building is dominated (that's the word, dominated) by a massive portico held up by Doric columns.

Standing in front of that portico, you feel it. But if the columns are the handshake, the details are the conversation. Those alternating horizontal bands of pink rusticated stone?

Quarried locally, right out of the surrounding country, so the land itself is part of what you're lookin' at. And crowning the whole structure, a Beaux Arts style clock tower housing a Seth Thomas timepiece, keepin' time over the high desert like it's got all the patience in the world. More than a century on, that courthouse is still the seat of local government in Jeff Davis County.

Some buildings outlast their builders by outlasting every reason to replace them. This one just keeps showin' up to work.

What the marker says

Designed by the architectural firm of l. L. Thurman and Co. of Dallas, this building was erected in 1910-1911 and replaced the original 1880 adobe courthouse. This concrete and stone Classical Revival edifice, erected by the Falls City Construction Company of Louisville, Kentucky, is dominated by a massive portico supported by Doric columns. Other distinctive design elements include the alternating horizontal bands of pink rusticated stone made of locally quarried materials and the Beaux Arts style clock tower, which features a Seth Thomas timepiece. The courthouse continues as the seat of local government. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2000