Castro County Courthouses
Dimmitt, Castro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This site was set aside as the Dimmitt town square in 1891, the year Castro County was formally organized. Temporary court facilities were set up in J. N. Morrison's office while the first courthouse was built. An ornate two-story structure, it burned in 1906 after being hit by lighting. A brick courthouse with a central dome, built in 1908, was dedicated at a community picnic. It served until the 1930s, but was razed to make room for the present stone building. Built with Works Progress Administration labor, Castro County's third courthouse opened in 1939. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Castro County was organized in 1891, the town of Dimmitt set aside this square and held court in a private office until its first courthouse rose. That ornate wooden building burned after a lightning strike in 1906, a domed brick successor served into the 1930s, and the present stone courthouse was raised in 1939 with Works Progress Administration labor.
Why it matters
The succession of courthouses on one square traces how frontier counties matured into settled communities, and the WPA-built third courthouse ties this small Panhandle town to the nationwide New Deal public-works effort.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Shoot-out on Jones Street
Dimmitt, TX
The choice of a county seat was serious business on the Texas Panhandle frontier, serious enough to draw blood. At an 1891 meeting, heated words passed between Ira Aten, a retired Texas Ranger backing rival Castro City, and Andrew McClelland, spokesman for Dimmitt. Days after Dimmitt won the vote, the two shot it out in the middle of Jones Street; Aten wounded both McClelland and his brother, was acquitted, and was soon appointed county sheriff.
Gilbreath-Cowsert House
Dimmitt, TX
Tennessee native and local merchant Jeff T. Gilbreath brought his family to the newly settled Castro County in 1905 and built this house in 1909, soon selling it to county attorney Mark Cowsert. A fine example of early 20th-century vernacular architecture with its bay window and hipped, gabled roof, the house was preserved when the Castro County Museum acquired it in 1976.
Castro County
Dimmitt, TX
Carved from earlier territories and formally organized in 1891, Castro County honors Henri Castro (1786–1861), a French-born empresario who colonized the Texas Hill Country. Castro founded Castroville, Quihi, Vandenburg, and D'Hanis in Medina County, recruiting European settlers — many Alsatian — to a raw frontier. Dimmitt serves as the county seat on the High Plains far to the north of the towns that bear his mark.
Summerfield-Dameron Corner
Dimmitt, TX
In 1876 the English-born surveyor John Summerfield began mapping millions of acres across the Texas Panhandle, raising earth monuments to anchor his work. One such marker near this spot became a starting point for surveys spanning several counties and later gained the name Dameron's Corner after a nearby landowner. Citizens set a concrete monument here in 1925, though a road cut buried it in 1958.