208 Crockett County

208 of 254 Crockett County Courthouse, Ozona, Texas. County Population: 3,719

Crockett County, Texas

"Crockett County is located in southwestern Texas on the western edge of the Edwards Plateau. It is bounded on the west by the Pecos River, which separates it from Terrell and Pecos counties. Its northern border is formed by Crane, Upton, Reagan, and Irion counties, while Schleicher and Sutton counties border it on the east and Val Verde County on the south. Ozona, the county seat and only town, is located eighty-two miles southwest of San Angelo. Crockett County comprises 2,806 square miles. The terrain consists of deep, narrow, steep-walled canyons and flat mesas in the southern and western areas. Broad valleys and flat divides characterize the northern part. Altitudes vary from 1,500 feet above sea level in the southwest to 2,800 feet above sea level in the northwest.
"On January 12, 1875, Crockett County, named for David Crockett of Alamo fame, was formed from Bexar County and attached to Kinney County for judicial purposes. In 1885 Val Verde County was organized and Crockett County became a subsidiary of it. Two years later, on March 15, 1887, Crockett County was reduced to its present size when Sutton and Schleicher counties were cut away. Crockett County was organized on July 7, 1891, when an election was held at Couch Well, or Eureka, to choose the county seat from three contending communities. The election was inconclusive, but Ozona, where E. M. Powell had already drilled a prolific water well and donated land for public buildings, became the county seat by the end of the year as the other communities failed to develop."
Julia Cauble Smith, "CROCKETT COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online

I visited Ozona and photographed the courthouse in Ozona on Saturday, May 10, Sunday, May 11, 2014, and Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

IH 10 cuts east-west through the center of Crockett County

Driving west on E. 11th Street, towards downtown Ozona. A canopy of trees shades this residential area

A large park fills the center of Ozona. This statue "A Tie That Binds" by Judy Black, dates from 1998.

Crockett County Courthouse 1902

The original central tower had empty spaces for future clocks. Image courtesy courthousehistory.com

Sometime between 1962 and 1971 the "clocks" were removed. Image courtesy courthousehistory.com

"The Crockett County courthouse, located at 907 Avenue D, is a two-story limestone structure designed by architect Oscar Ruffini in the popular Second Empire Style. Built as the second courthouse in 1902, only eleven years after Crockett County was organized, the structure dominated the newly founded county seat of Ozona. The courthouse is built of hand sawed native limestone laid in large, rough-hewn, ashlar blocks. The plan is bi- laterally symmetrical and basically square with four identical five-bay facades. The five-part composition includes a central projecting pavilion, framed by two recessed bays and terminating in projecting end pavilions. While the main roof is hipped, the central pavilions form a gabled pediment and the end pavilions are topped by a pyramidal cap. From the front central slope of the hipped roof rises a convex Mansard roofed tower which rests on a rectilinear base. Originally, l'oiel d' beaoufs were attached to each side of the truncated Mansard roof. An iron balustrade encircles the flat deck and supports an arc light added in 1909. Ruffini had earlier acted as the supervising architect for the first San Angelo courthouse in 1884, and designed the original stone courthouses of Concho, Mills, Sutton, and Sterling Counties." From the National Register narrative

Good news! The central Mansard roof has been recently restored to its original design. This is the front of the courthouse, on Avenue D. It faces west