DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Now, Wilson County has itself a courthouse in Floresville, and this building has a story worth slowin' down for. Cast your eyes on that structure, because it did not appear out of thin air.
Back in 1871, Floresville was chosen as the Wilson County seat, and a courthouse went up not long after that to mark the occasion. But by 1884, it was time for something grander, something that said Wilson County meant business. So that first courthouse got replaced.
The new one, the one standing right there, went up in 1884. And here is where the story gets interesting. The man behind the design was Alfred Giles, a noted architect out of San Antonio.
Giles gave this building an Italianate character, that particular style that carries a certain Old World confidence, and he built it to be noticed. Now, the bricks that make up those walls were not hauled in from somewhere far off. They were made right there in a local brickyard, which means the county quite literally built this thing from the ground up.
Look at the front and you will see entry pavilions held up on Doric columns, serious and dignified. Run your eyes up to the roofline and there is a bracketed cornice giving the whole thing a finished, deliberate look. And then, up top, the piece that stops people mid-step, a central tower with a steeple rising above it all.
The marker calls it noteworthy, and that is courthouse-speak for the kind of thing you remember long after you have left town. One building, one architect, one local brickyard, and a county that decided in 1884 it was done doing things small.
What the marker says
Constructed in 1884, this courthouse replaced one built soon after Floresville was chosen Wilson County seat in 1871. Designed by noted San Antonio architect Alfred Giles, this Italianate structure was constructed of bricks made in a local brickyard. It features entry pavilions supported on Doric columns, a bracketed cornice along the roofline, and a noteworthy central tower with steeple. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984