045 of 254 Parker County Courthouse, Weatherford, Texas. County Population: 138,447
"Weatherford, the [Parker] county seat, is thirty miles west of Fort Worth. The county was named for Isaac Parker.
"Under the leadership of Isaac Parker 224 settlers in the area signed a petition requesting the establishment of a new county, and in December 1855 the state legislature formed Parker County from Bosque and Navarro counties. Weatherford was designated as the county seat, and by 1858 the town had a new two-story brick courthouse surrounded by a handful of cabins and tents." Jeri Echeverria, "PARKER COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online |
I visited the county and photographed the courthouse on June 2, 2010, and passed through again on June 27, 2012, on my way to Palo Pinto County.
Parker County Courthouse 1886"The Parker County Courthouse is an eye-catcher. Its tall central tower and four corner pavilions with handsome mansard roofs are a naive and charming version of the French Second Empire style in architecture.
"The present courthouse is the fourth and was built in 1884-1886 for a cost of $55,555.55. The architect was W. C. Dodson, at that time in partnership with a man named Dudley. Dodson was the architect for at least five other Texas courthouses, two of them, the courthouses of Hill and Hood counties - both built in 1890, with central towers that duplicate this one in Weatherford. "A three-story limestone courthouse with fourth-story attics and a central tower that adds three additional stories. The building is square in plan with four identical facades, each facade divided into five bays by the shallow projection of the central and end pavilions. The end pavilions are surmounted by prominent convex mansard roofs each with four dormers with pedimented architraves above arched windows. The central pavilions have gables and the eaves of the building are bracketed with irregularly spaced brackets of two sizes." From the National Register listing narrative |