Schleicher County Courthouse

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every courthouse has a story, and the one standing in Schleicher County, it's got a story that starts with fire. Back in 1917, the courthouse that stood on this very site burned.

Gone. And when a county loses its courthouse, it loses something close to its center of gravity. So Schleicher County did what Texas counties do.

It rebuilt. Construction ran from 1923 into 1924, and this time, they weren't going to settle for ordinary. They brought in Henry T.

Phelps, a noted architect out of San Antonio, and the man delivered something worth looking at. Three stories of Classical Revival, the kind of building that makes you slow down when you're driving past. Four half-round giant order Doric columns holding up a large entablature, the whole thing cut from native stone pulled out of nearby quarries.

That detail right there, stone from the local earth, there's something fitting about that. The county building itself out of its own ground, rising up from the same land it serves. Over the years, that courthouse has been the site of numerous community events, which is a dignified way of saying it's seen just about everything a county can live through.

Weddings recorded, disputes settled, elections certified, generations of Schleicher County life passing through those doors beneath those columns. The building that replaced what fire took in 1917 turned out to be something the county has kept right on using. That's not a bad answer to a bad night.

What the marker says

Constructed in 1923-24, this courthouse replaced an earlier building on this site which burned in 1917. Designed by noted architect Henry T. Phelps of San Antonio, the 3-story Classical Revival structure features four half-round giant order Doric columns which support a large entablature. Native stone for the building was obtained from nearby quarries. The courthouse has been the site of numerous community events over the years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1991