212 of 254  Franklin County Courthouse, Mount Vernon, Texas.  County Population:  10,605

Franklin County, Texas

"Franklin County is located in northeast Texas, one county removed from Oklahoma and three counties removed from Arkansas.  The county comprises 294 square miles of the post oak belt and is heavily wooded; post oak, blackjack oak, and pine trees predominate. The terrain varies from nearly level to rolling.
"[Anglo Saxon] settlement began in the late 1830s along the eastern edge of what became Franklin County; most of the early settlers came from the upper southern states, predominantly Tennessee. The Cherokee Trace passed through the area, and by the late 1840s the central part of the county was also settled. By 1870 Mount Vernon had a population of 223. The county was marked off by the legislature in March 1875 and named for Judge Benjamin C. Franklin, an early Red River County settler. An election was held on April 30, 1875, to select the county seat. Mount Vernon won by a large majority, and the matter was never again contested."
Cecil Harper, Jr., "FRANKLIN COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online


I visited Franklin County and photographed the courthouse in Mount Vernon on Saturday, June 7, 2014 and Friday, September 22, 2017.

A tall, skinny county.

Cattle grazing along side US 67 in Franklin County

Franklin County Courthouse 1875                   Franklin County Courthouse 1912

Image courtesy of courthousehistory.com

Image courtesy of courthousehistory.com

The courthouse is on the north side of the square, with colonnade/pediments on the south and west facades.

Architect: L.L. Thurman & Company. Photo, circa 1939, courtesy of TXDOT

The courthouse in April 2006. Photograph courtesy of Paul Hester. The sculpture is no longer on the courthouse grounds.

The southwest corner of the square in Mt Vernon

The courthouse tower viewed from the southwest, on Main Street

The west façade of the courthouse, on Kaufman Street

The south façade of the courthouse, on Dallas Street, facing the square

This otherwise symmetrical courthouse has porches on the south and west sides only

The building cornerstone is on the southwest corner

Another courthouse restoration thanks to the citizens of Texas

The east and north facades aren't on a public street so they lack a porch. The historic jail, now an art museum, is north of the courthouse

Franklin County Courthouse rededicated in September 2014, following restoration

The south facade.

The west facade.

Historic buildings at the corner of Kaufman and Main Streets

Interstate Highway 30 cuts through the Franklin County countryside