136 of 254 Navarro County Courthouse, Corsicana, Texas.  County Population:  47,735

Navarro County, Texas

"In the spring of 1839 more families moved in and settled around the trading post. Two growing settlements were Porter's Bluff and Dresden. All of the legal work for the two sites was conducted at Franklin, the county seat of Robertson County, 125 miles south of Hill's Trading Post. In the spring of 1846 a group led by Edward H. Tarrant, a Texas Ranger, met at the home of Thomas I. Smith. The men at the meeting drew up a petition for a new county to be made out of Robertson County, ... a local lawyer, presented the petition to the state legislature in Austin, and it was approved on April 25, 1846. The new county included all the portion of Robertson County within the east bank of the Brazos River to the northwest corner of Limestone County. It also extended to the Trinity River and north to Dallas County. It was named Navarro County in honor of José Antonio Navarro, a Texas patriot.
"On February 8, 1848, a committee headed by Tarrant voted to set up a permanent county seat at the halfway point between Porter's Bluff and Dresden.  José Antonio Navarro chose the name Corsicana in honor of the Isle of Corsica, his father's birthplace.
"Over the next twenty years the original Navarro County was divided into the following counties: Limestone in 1846, Ellis in 1847, Tarrant in 1847, part of McLennan in 1850, Hill in 1853, Johnson in 1854, Parker in 1855, Palo Pinto in 1856, and Hood in 1866."
Julie G. Miller, "NAVARRO COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online 

I visited Navarro County and photographed the courthouse in Corsicana on Saturday, April 28, 2012. 

Navarro County Courthouse 1905

James Edward Flanders, Architect. Image courtesy courthousehistory.com

Photo, circa1939, courtesy TXDOT. The trees already obscure the building

The south corner of the courthouse, at the intersection of W 3rd Ave and N 13th Street

Another view from the south. Mature trees obscure most of the building on this side

The southwest side of the courthouse. Flanders, the architect, created an eclectic, Beaux Arts style exterior

The north corner of the courthouse. The corner entrances are borrowed from Gordon's diagonal courthouse plans

The east corner of the building

A close-up of the tower. I "removed" the cluttered antenna from the dome

The courthouse entrance on W 3rd Ave faces southeast

A statue of Mr. Navarro guards the main entrance

The view from W 3rd Ave of the courthouse front. The trees completely obscure the building

The newer Navarro County Justice Center is on W 2nd Ave, directly across from the historic courthouse

The US Post Office in downtown Corsicana. I visited during Derrick Days, a celebration of the area's oil industry. Oil was discovered in the county in 1894