DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, when Hays County originated in 1848, it had exactly one public building to its name — a log church-schoolhouse. House of worship, schoolroom, and courthouse all rolled into one.
That building was working overtime before the county was barely out of diapers. The San Marcos townsite got platted in 1851, and a court square was donated to the county right there in the plan. Fine gesture.
Only trouble was, the county didn't yet have the funds to put anything on it worth bragging about. Then came a twist only Texas could produce — the forfeiture of a two-thousand-dollar criminal bond. Somebody skipped out on their obligations, and Hays County pocketed the money.
With those funds in hand, officials in 1861 employed a contractor by the name of C. F. Millett to put up something real on that Square.
Millett built them a two-story frame courthouse, thirty-six by forty feet, with a hearing room, jury rooms, and four offices. Pine construction. Which, as you might already be bracing yourself to hear, matters.
That pine building burned in 1868. County officials went scrambling for rented quarters and stayed there until 1871, when a new courthouse of soft, locally quarried limestone finally rose up and gave them a proper home again. Two stories, forty-five by fifty-three feet.
It must have felt like permanence. It was not. The ground itself had other ideas — earth shiftings damaged that limestone building, and by 1881 it was razed.
Fourth try now. This time they brought in an architect with credentials: F. E.
Ruffini, the man who designed buildings for the University of Texas and courthouses in several other counties. Ruffini gave them a harder limestone structure, fifty by sixty feet, two stories, built between 1882 and 1883. Harder stone.
Stronger design. Better odds. And for a while, it held.
Then February 28th, 1908 — fire again. This one took the top story clean off. And just like that, the county razed what remained.
Four courthouses, and the county was back at square one. But they were done losing. Officials turned to C.
H. Page and Brother, out of Austin, and commissioned an eclectic-style courthouse — the fourth one, and the one standing to this day. The county court completed and accepted it on December 13th, 1909.
It's seen interior alterations over the years, and a full restoration in 1972. What started as a borrowed log schoolhouse became, through fire and shifting earth and more than a little stubbornness, a courthouse that finally stuck.
What the marker says
When Hays County originated in 1848, its one public building was a log church-schoolhouse that had to serve as the courthouse, along with its other uses. Although the San Marcos townsite, platted in 1851, contained a court square donated to the county, the forfeiture of a $2,000.00 criminal bond later gave the county funds for building, and in 1861 officials employed contractor C. F. Millett to erect on the Square a 36 x 40-foot, 2-story frame courthouse with a hearing room, jury rooms, and 4 offices. That pine building burned in 1868, and county officials operated from rented quarters until a courthouse of soft, locally quarried limestone was completed in 1871. Damaged by earth shiftings, that 2-story, 45 x 53-foot building was razed (1881) and replaced by a 50 x 60-foot, 2-story building of harder limestone designed by F. e. Ruffini, architect for University of Texas buildings and for courthouses in several other counties. After that 1882-83 structure lost its top story in a fire on Feb. 28, 1908, it also was razed. The fourth and present courthouse, in eclectic style, was designed by C. H. Page & Brother, of Austin. Completed and accepted by the county court on Dec. 13, 1909, it has had interior alterations; it was restored in 1972.