017 of 254: Austin County Courthouse, Bellville, Texas. County Population: 28,417
Highway 36, looking southeast towards the Austin County courthouse, Bellville, Texas.
Bellville - A Texas Experience
"The area now known as Austin County was selected by Stephen Fuller Austin in 1823 as the site for his colony, the first Anglo-American settlement in Texas. Bellville, the county seat of Austin County is located on the Santa Fe Railroad. This Anglo-American settlement is named for Thomas B. Bell, one of the Old Three Hundred who came to Texas in 1822 and in 1838 built a home in the Bellville area.
In 1848 when the county seat was moved from San Felipe to Bellville the first courthouse was an old frame structure which stood in the town square. A second courthouse which was constructed in 1854 was built at a cost of $13,000.00 and was the first brick building in Austin County. This courthouse burned on April 5, 1960 and a new one was rebuilt to take its place." http://www.austincounty.com/ips/cms/CountyHistory.html
"The county received its first rail service in the late 1870s when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway extended its Galveston-Brenham main line through Wallis, Sealy, and Bellville. State Highway 36 was extended through the county in 1936 and U.S. Highway 90 was built in 1937. With the completion of Interstate 10 in 1965 the county was equipped with an imminently functional road system."
Charles Christopher Jackson, "AUSTIN COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online
I visited Austin County and photographed the courthouse in Bellville on July 17, 2009 and on October 1, 2011
In 1848 when the county seat was moved from San Felipe to Bellville the first courthouse was an old frame structure which stood in the town square. A second courthouse which was constructed in 1854 was built at a cost of $13,000.00 and was the first brick building in Austin County. This courthouse burned on April 5, 1960 and a new one was rebuilt to take its place." http://www.austincounty.com/ips/cms/CountyHistory.html
"The county received its first rail service in the late 1870s when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway extended its Galveston-Brenham main line through Wallis, Sealy, and Bellville. State Highway 36 was extended through the county in 1936 and U.S. Highway 90 was built in 1937. With the completion of Interstate 10 in 1965 the county was equipped with an imminently functional road system."
Charles Christopher Jackson, "AUSTIN COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online
I visited Austin County and photographed the courthouse in Bellville on July 17, 2009 and on October 1, 2011
Austin County Courthouse 1888
On April 5, 1960, fire destroyed the historic 1888 Austin County courthouse, designed by noted Houston architect, Eugene T. Heiner. Rather than restore the old courthouse, the county decided to build a new courthouse, in the center of the town square, where the old building stood. The new courthouse, designed by Wyatt Hedrick of Fort Worth (architect of Houston's Shamrock Hotel), was a radical, modern departure from the beloved 1888 courthouse. Nevertheless, the new courthouse has now itself, become historic, having stood for over 50 years in the center of Bellville. Unfortunately, the building, a respectable modern design for the mid-twentieth century, is sited in the middle of what is a very busy traffic circle in the center of the Bellville square. The courthouse is thus an island in the middle of a sea of vehicles. Not exactly an ideal setting for a public edifice. Perhaps, someday, Highway 36 will be routed around Bellville in a bypass that will allow the county to remove the traffic circle and construct a more appropriate landscape for the courthouse.
Austin County courthouse (1888), circa 1939. Courtesy of TXDOT.
|
Austin County courthouse (1888). Photo of painting, courtesy The Austin County Jail Museum.
|
Austin County Courthouse 1960
Austin County courthouse: Northwest facade.
|
Austin County courthouse: Southeast facade.
|
The sign says it all. Watch out when entering the Austin County courthouse!
|
|
The Harigel House, Bellville, circa 1882, is a block southwest of the square, across from the old jail.
The E.O. Finn building, 1896, is an Italianate design with wrought iron columns.
|
The E.O. Finn building fronts on Highway 36, a few blocks southeast of the square.
|
