The Coryell County Courthouse is an historic building located at Courthouse Square in

Gatesville, Texas Gatesville is a city in and the county seat of Coryell County, Texas, United States. Its population was 16,135 at the 2020 census. The city has five of the nine prisons and state jails for women operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. ...

, the seat of Coryell County. Built in 1897–98, it was the county's third courthouse; Architect

Wesley Clark Dodson Wesley Clark Dodson (1829–1914), most often known as W.C. Dodson, was an architect of Waco, Texas. Dodson fought for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He traveled to Galveston, Texas from Alabama and later mo ...

, A designer of many Civil Buildings in Texas, designed the Beaux Arts building. In his design, Dodson modified the traditional cross-axial plan to allow for the erection of a central tower. By moving the district courtroom to a position alongside the tower rather than centered underneath it, he was able to extend the masonry support walls to the ground and support the tower. An important feature of the court house is the Massive Classical

porticos A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

, differing somewhat in scale and treatment, define the north and south entries. The south

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

has paired corner columns, while the north has single columns. The porticos rise from a one-story base of rusticated stone with arched entries in the lower level. The openings flanking the central arch are smaller on the north facade. Red sandstone

Corinthian columns The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order w ...

support white sandstone pediments, with the five pointed star of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

inset in contrasting carved stone. The courthouse was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1977.

References

Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas County courthouses in Texas Buildings and structures in Coryell County, Texas Wesley Clark Dodson buildings Clock towers in Texas Government buildings completed in 1898 National Register of Historic Places in Coryell County, Texas Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks {{Texas-NRHP-stub

See also

References