Newton County Courthouse

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm taking it from there. Now, Newton County has had itself more than one courthouse, and that right there ought to tell you something about the stubbornness of the people who kept building them. The first one went up over in Burkeville, back in 1848.

Then, just a few years later, somebody decided the public square right here was a better address, and a second courthouse rose on this very spot in 1853. Two tries before the one you're looking at today. But when Newton County finally decided to get serious, they got serious.

The courthouse standing before you went up in 1902 and 1903, and the men who built it were contractors Martin and Moody, out of Comanche. Now, they didn't haul in fancy materials from far away. The brick came from nearby Caney Creek, made right there on the bank.

Local clay, local hands, local pride pressed right into every wall. And what they built was no plain county box. This is Second Empire style, which means it carries itself with a certain Old World confidence.

It's got a mansard roof sweeping up over the whole thing, corner quoins giving the edges a sharp, deliberate look, and then there's the clock tower. Truncated, they call it, which is a polite way of saying it got stopped short, and that detail alone gives the building a character all its own. Inside, time kept workin' on the place.

The interior was altered in 1910, and then again in 1925. The jail was added in 1936, because apparently the courthouse business was expanding. Then, in 1972 and 1973, the whole structure was restored, which means somebody looked at what Martin and Moody built with Caney Creek brick back at the turn of the century and decided it was worth saving.

They were right. Three courthouses on the same county's ledger, and this last one outlasted them all.

What the marker says

This Courthouse was preceded by one built in Burkeville in 1848, and another erected on this public square in 1853. It is a Second Empire style edifice, with an unusual truncated clock tower, mansard roof, and corner quoins, built in 1902-03 by contractors Martin & Moody of Comanche; from brick made on nearby Caney Creek. The interior was altered in 1910 and 1925, and the jail added in 1936. Restored in 1972-73. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1974