Brooks County Courthouse
Falfurrias, Brooks County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created in 1911, Brooks County was named for State Legislator James A. Brooks (1855-1944), who served as the first county judge. Edward C. Lasater, founder of Falfurrias, deeded this courthouse site to the commissioners court. County offices occupied rented quarters before construction of this edifice in 1914. The brick courthouse was designed by San Antonio architect Alfred Giles (1853-1920), who planned numerous public buildings in Texas and Northern Mexico. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Brooks County was carved from the ranchlands of South Texas in 1911 and named for a state legislator who became its first county judge. On a site deeded by Falfurrias founder Edward C. Lasater, the county raised this brick courthouse in 1914 to the design of noted San Antonio architect Alfred Giles, who planned public buildings across Texas and northern Mexico.
Why it matters
The courthouse marks the early-twentieth-century organization of South Texas ranching country into settled, self-governing counties.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- ¡ James A. Brooks
- ¡ Edward C. Lasater
- ¡ Alfred Giles
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Falfurrias
Falfurrias, TX
Falfurrias was founded in 1904 as a cattle-shipping point by rancher Edward C. Lasater, who took the name from a village on land he had bought in 1893. When the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad reached the area, Lasater platted the townsite and built its hotel, store, water and power plants, and cotton gin, then opened the region to truck farming, citrus, and dairying â founding South Texas' first creamery. Later oil and gas discoveries added yet another chapter to the boomtown's growth.
Brooks County's Catholic Heritage
Falfurrias, TX
Catholic faith reached this corner of South Texas well before 1800, when the region lay within the Diocese of Monterrey. For some forty years, priests from San Diego rode the scattered ranches to minister to the faithful, and in the early 1900s permanent missions and parishes took root around Falfurrias.
First United Methodist Church of Falfurrias
Falfurrias, TX
The Rev. C. W. Perkins organized this Methodist congregation in 1904 with just seven charter members, worshipping first in the railroad depot and the 1905 frame schoolhouse shared by every denomination. In 1906 the Methodists built their own church on land donated by town founder Edward C. Lasater. Battered by hurricanes in 1916 and 1919 and remodeled in 1935, the frame building gave way to the present church in 1950.
James Abijah Brooks
Falfurrias, TX
Kentucky-born James Abijah Brooks came to Texas in 1876 as a rancher and trail driver before joining the Texas Rangers, whom he served from 1882 to 1906. He chased down South Texas cattle thieves, helped block the notorious 1896 Fitzsimmons-Maher prizefight near El Paso, and later served in the legislature and for decades as county judge of the county that bears his name.