Marion County Courthouse

Duane's take

The official marker's the source, and here's how Duane tells it. Marion County, Texas, and a courthouse with a story that goes all the way back to before the Civil War. Let's ride.

The Texas Legislature created Marion County in 1860. Now Jefferson, the town that would become the county seat, had already been around since at least 1841. That's a town that knew itself before the county even had a name.

By 1860, Jefferson had grown into a genuine regional economic center, and the reason was water. Big Cypress Bayou was navigable, kept that way by a logjam sitting way down on the Red River. Steamboats were moving goods and people through that part of East Texas, and Jefferson was right in the middle of all of it.

So when Marion County needed a seat of government, Jefferson was the obvious choice. The county government moved through several buildings in its first fifty years. There was a courthouse built in 1873, and a place called the Murphy Building, which folks can still find today, used as a courthouse annex.

But the story really turns in 1912, when the county hired an architect by the name of Elmer G. Withers to design something worthy of the place. Withers had done this before.

His design for the Roberts County Courthouse gave him a blueprint, and he drew from it here. What went up was a Classical Revival building, the kind that makes you stop on the sidewalk and look up. Doric columns.

A balustered parapet running along the roofline. Denticulation in the details. And a raised basement giving the whole structure a little extra height, a little extra gravity.

A building that says, plain as anything: this county means business. And in Jefferson, where steamboats once lined the bayou and the whole region came to trade, that courthouse is still standin' tall.

What the marker says

The Texas Legislature created Marion County in 1860. Jefferson, established as early as 1841, was chosen as county seat. By 1860, Jefferson was a regional economic center for steamboat traffic on Big Cypress Bayou, navigable due to a logjam on the Red River. The county government occupied several buildings during its first 50 years, including a courthouse built in 1873 and the Murphy Building, used today as a courthouse annex. In 1912, the county hired architect Elmer G. Withers to design a courthouse. Similar to his design for the Roberts County Courthouse, this Classical Revival building features Doric columns, balustered parapet, denticulation and raised basement. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2002