Coryell County Courthouse
Public Sq., Gatesville, TXThe Coryell County Courthouse has local historical importance and regional architectural significance. It has been the center of governmental activities since its completion and continues to serve these functions. It was designed by a prominent Texas architect and has no counterpart in the state. Comprised of curved and rectangular forms, and incorporating a combination of Romanesque and classical details, as well as polychromatic materials, the edifice is one of the most interesting and charming nineteenth-century courthouses in the Southwest.
Coryell County, named for James Coryell, an early explorer of the region, was organized in 1854. Gatesville, the county seat, grew up around Fort Gates, established in 1849 to protect settlers from marauding Indians. After the incorporation of the county, public business was for a time conducted from rented offices and commercial buildings. Land for a courthouse square was acquired and a one-story framed structure was constructed in 1865 on a corner presently occupied by a city filling station. In 1872, a two-story structure of native white limestone was erected on this property and served as a focus of county business for the next twenty-five years. The second courthouse, built at a cost of $11,000 had four rooms defined by intersecting main halls on the first floor with jury and courtrooms above.
On May 15, 1897, architect w.C. Dodson was commissioned to draw plans and specifications for a third courthouse at a contract price of three and a half percent of the total building cost. The only stipulations imposed on the architect were that the building has a cupola on top with a Seth Thomas clock and a bell of not less than 800 pounds, and that the building is roofed in metal with the dome on the cupola in clad copper. In addition, there were to be dual statues of Liberty and Justice at the north and south entrances.
On October 2, 1897, a hollow cornerstone was laid with a full Masonic ritual. The stone was placed on the northeast corner of the building; its orientation was, in the ceremonial us age, symbolic of light. It was positioned at the accompaniment of music and after suitable orations were sprinkled with corn, wine, and oil, emblematic of plenty of health and peace. It was blue-grey granite weighing 1,825 pounds. Among the inscriptions on its surface were the dates Anno Domini and the Masonic Anno Lucis. Inside was a box of articles representative of the character of the period. Included was a photo of the old courthouse, two boxes of medicine, a copy of the Dallas Morning News an 1897 five-cent piece, a bottle of whiskey, and a list of Women's Christian Temperance Union officers along with a Columbian half-dollar and Masonic Lodge Bible.
The courthouse was completed on July 18, 1898, at a cost of $73,649.69 by contractor Thomas Lovell. Constructed of native limestone and red sandstone, the blocks were cut to size at the quarry and hauled to the site by horse-drawn wagons.
The courthouse today continues to serve its original function (1977).
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
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.