Bastrop County Courthouse and Jail Complex

The community of Bastrop was first settled in 1829 where the "El Camino Real" crossed the Colorado River. Among the towns founded when Texas was a Mexican state was Bastrop, or Mina as it was called then, laid out in 1830 by empressario Stephen F. Austin. Bastrop was named for Baron Felipe Enrique Neri de Bastrop, a Dutch immigrant who used his influence in enabling Moses Austin to secure a land grant from the Mexican government for the purpose of settling Anglo-Americans in Texas and in aiding Stephen F. Austin in establishing the Republic of Texas. Bastrop County, created in 1836 and organized in 1839, was one of the original 23 counties in the Republic of Texas.

Several different structures housed the courthouse and jail before the present facilities were built. The "ayuntamiento," or municipal council, in 1834 ordered a two-story, two-room house built in the southern part of town to serve as the first courthouse. In 1840 the county bought a residence on lot 17, west of Main Street, for use as the courthouse until 1855. A third courthouse had its beginnings in 1851 when the corporation of Bastrop appropriated funds to build a two-story courthouse and jail of brick, on the site of the present day courthouse. It was completed in the late 1850's and served until it burned in January, 1883.

After the fire, the court immediately raised funds and in February accepted the plans of J. W. Preston and Sons to build the present courthouse. Mr. Preston lived in Austin, Texas, from 1875 until 1886 when he moved to Los Angeles, California. While in Texas, he planned and built a large number of commercial buildings including the Driskill Hotel in Austin, one of the city's finest buildings (National Register of Historic Places 1969). F. E. Ruffini, designer of many monumental Texas public buildings, including the Old Main Building at the University of Texas, was associated with Preston at the time the Bastrop County Courthouse was being designed. Ruffini reviewed and perfected the courthouse plans and specifications. Though the building cost was $33,000, Ruffini estimated its worth at the time of its acceptance by the court to be $45,000. in April, 1884, John McDonald, builder and contractor, reported the building ready for inspection, and the court received it and moved the county offices into the building.

This courthouse, built of red brick and stone, is still in use in the same capacity for which it was created. Extensive remodeling, including new floors, modern heating, lighting and plumbing at the cost of $53,000, was completed in 1924. At this time the dome was lowered and various architectural details were removed. A modern effort for more office space and a Commissioner's courtroom resulted in the addition of a wing to the south of the original building in 1953-1954 by the Austin architectural firm of Page, Southerland and Page. In 1971 a new jail and sheriff's office were built on the courthouse square immediately to the southeast of the courthouse.

The firm of Martin, Byrnes, and Johnston of Colorado City, Texas, builders of numerous Texas courthouses, including the Fayette County Courthouse (National Register of Historic Places, 1975), constructed the jail in 1891-1892. In 1925 the jail was remodeled by the Southern Steel Company of San Antonio. The old jail has been vacant since recent construction of the Bastrop County Public Safety Building on the courthouse square, but the county has offered use of the building to the Bastrop County Historical Commission as a meeting place and possible museum.

Although the Bastrop County Courthouse has been altered substantially from its original fine Neo-classical form, the structure is historically significant to the state for representing the governmental organization of one of the first Anglo-American settlements in Texas. Linked with the courthouse, the Old Bastrop County Jail is not only historically important, but is architecturally important as well as a dignified and interesting Victorian building.