027 of 254:  Nacogdoches County Courthouse, Nacogdoches, Texas:  County Population:  64,524

Nacogdoches County, Texas

"Nacogdoches County, in the center of the pine belt of East Texas, is bounded on the west and south by the Angelina River and on the east by Attoyac Bayou.
"When the Spanish under Ramón arrived in 1716, they found in what is now Nacogdoches County several villages of the Caddo Indians and a large village of the Bidais. In the midst of these tribes Ramón built Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainai Mission near the mouth of Mill Creek on the Angelina River, San José de los Nazonis on Dill Creek in northwestern Nacogdoches County, and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches (named for the Nacogdoche Indians) on the site of present Nacogdoches.
"Immediately after the Texas Revolution the municipalities within the 
Nacogdoches Department, Liberty, Jefferson, Jasper, Sabine, San Augustine, and Shelby, were established as counties of the Republic of Texas. The remaining area east of the Trinity River was designated Nacogdoches County on March 17, 1836. In April 1846 the county was further subdivided into what would eventually become all or part
of twenty other counties: Anderson, Angelina, Camp, Cherokee, Dallas, Delta, Gregg, Henderson, Hopkins, Houston, Hunt, Kaufman, Rains, Rockwall, Rusk, Smith, Trinity, Upshur, Van Zandt, and Wood."
Christopher Long, "NACOGDOCHES COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online 
I visited Nacogdoches County and photographed the courthouse on September 28, 2009 and again on July 14, 2013.

Nacogdoches County courthouse 1911

Image courtesy courthousehistory.com

Image courtesy courthousehistory.com

Designed by the Dallas firm of Lang & Witchell, this courthouse was demolished to make way for the current courthouse.

Photograph, circa 1939, courtesy of TXDOT

The only reminder of the previous courthouse is the cornerstone.

Nacogdoches County courthouse 1958

Designed by architect J. N. McCammon, this is certainly one of the more unusual courthouse designs in Texas.  In his guidebook to Texas courthouses, Dr. Mavis Kelsey notes that the building has been de-scribed as "early-motel" style.  This style is related to the low-slung ranch house designs that were popular in mid-century America.  (The photograph on the right is the original building; it has since been altered and extended.)  The original building, with its broad front porch facing a lawn, is residential, the "home" of county government, if you will.  Very informal and un-institutional, the courthouse was intended to fit in to the modern look of suburban America in the 1950's.  All well and good, except that as a symbol of Nacogdoches County government, the courthouse gets lost in the forest of other commercial buildings fronting the main "drag" of Nacogdoches.   

Image courtesy courthousehistory.com

The courthouse occupies the southwest corner at the intersection of US 59 Business and Main Street.