Caldwell County Courthouse Historic District
a.k.a. See Also:Emanuel Episcopal Church
Courthouse Sq. and environs, Lockhart, TXCaldwell county was first explored in 1831 by Byrd Lockhart deputy surveyor to the DeWitt Colony. By 1835 a number of Mexican land grants had opened the area for settlement. Periodic Indian raids hampered the development of the area until 1840 when settlers led by Matthew Caldwell scored decisive victories in the Plumb Creek and Council House Indian fights. By the 1840s the population of the area had grown to some 200 persons. An act of the state legislature forced heirs of the original Lockhart to sell a tract of land around Lockhart Springs, which with the incorporation of the county in 1848 became Lockhart, the county seat.
The first courthouse was built immediately after the organization of the county, in the area designated as the town square. Presumably a simple framed structure, the cost was, "not to exceed $200, half paid when the building was completed and the other half paid twelve months later."
In 1856 this building was ordered sold at "public outcry" in preparation for the construction of a new structure. In 1857, Caldwell county built a second courthouse, a two-story edifice of limestone in the Greek Revival style. It was forty feet wide by sixty-five feet long with a bell and cupola on top.
By 1890 some controversy had arisen over the construction of a new courthouse to replace the antebellum structure.
Rival newspapers, the Lockhart Register and the Lockhart Post, covered the lively public debate. One contributor commented, "The present courthouse is 32 years old, it is too small and the limestone with which it is built is very dirty, we need a new one!" In spite of counter-arguments that a new courthouse would be a "waste of public money" and "larger than the town will ever need," the county commissioners voted on April 10, 1893, to consider "bids, plans, and specifications for a new courthouse to cost between $40,000 to $60,000".
On April 27, 1893, the commissioners' court approved drawings for a three-story building in the Second-Empire style submitted by the firm of Martin, Byrnes, and Johnston at a projected cost of $54,350. The design itself was evidently the work of British-born architect Alfred Giles, one of the most active architects in the state at that time. The Goliad County Courthouse built in 1894 by Martin, Byrnes, and Johnston is also attributed to Giles and was virtually identical to the Caldwell County Courthouse.
The cornerstone was laid with the Masonic ritual on August 15, 1893. On March 19, 1884, the commissioners' court received the courthouse and commended the supervising architect for "The faithful manner in which he performed the duties incumbent on him." The courthouse today continues to perform the original function with only minor changes in the architectural fabric.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.