Blanco County Courthouse
Johnson City, Blanco County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Designed by San Antonio architect Henry T. Phelps, the 1916 Blanco County Courthouse was the first permanent courthouse built after the seat of government moved from Blanco to Johnson City in 1890. Serving as contractor for the project was stonemason James Waterston, who had come from Scotland to Texas in 1883 to aid in the construction of the state Capitol. The Classical Revival limestone structure features Doric columns and a domed cupola. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1916 to a design by San Antonio architect Henry T. Phelps, the Blanco County Courthouse was the first permanent courthouse raised after the county seat moved from Blanco to Johnson City in 1890. Its Classical Revival limestone form, with Doric columns and a domed cupola, was contracted by stonemason James Waterston, a Scottish immigrant who had helped build the Texas Capitol. The building anchored the small Hill Country seat that would later become known as Lyndon Johnson's hometown.
Why it matters
County courthouses were the proudest civic statements of settling Texas, marking a community's permanence and self-government.
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Related people
- · Henry T. Phelps
- · James Waterston
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Blanco County
Johnson City, TX
Blanco County was carved from the neighboring counties of Burnet, Hays, Gillespie, and Comal, created and organized in the spring of 1858 in the Texas Hill Country. It took its name from the Blanco River that winds through the region. Blanco City served as county seat until 1890, when the honor passed to Johnson City, where it remains.
James Polk Johnson Building
Johnson City, TX
Built by town founder James Polk Johnson, this versatile structure served Johnson City as a community hall, opera house, and meeting place for churches and civic groups, while also housing banks, stores, hotels, and offices. When the Blanco County seat moved to Johnson City in 1890, the building briefly served as courthouse and jail. Years later, former president Lyndon Johnson kept an office here for a time.
1894 Blanco County Jail
Johnson City, TX
When the Blanco County seat moved to Johnson City, prisoners were first held in a damp basement, prompting the commissioners court to order a proper jail in 1893. Completed the next year, the limestone lockup was raised by Kansas-trained rock mason J. E. L. 'Kergie' Dildine. It survived an 1897 jailbreak and stayed in service for generations, adapted over time to meet state standards.
Dr. James F. Barnwell
Johnson City, TX
Born in Georgia in 1874 into a family of doctors, James Franklin Barnwell trained in medicine at the University of Tennessee and rode into Johnson City by horse-drawn buggy in 1898. In 1913 he built Blanco County's first hospital on the courthouse square, living on the first floor above wards equipped with the county's first x-ray machine and a Delco plant for electric light. A physician, surgeon, banker, and school board member, he served the county until his death in 1934.