Chambers County Courthouse
Anahuac, Chambers County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named after Texas pioneer Major General Thomas Jefferson Chambers, Chambers County was established in 1858. Until the early 20th century, Wallisville was the county seat and the location for the first three Chambers County courthouses. They were built in 1858, 1880 and 1887. Anahuac's rice canal system and the presence of wild hogs at Wallisville's courthouse prompted an election in 1907 that made Anahuac the county seat in 1908. After the election, the county constructed a new courthouse completed in 1912 at this location, the courthouse included a jail, indoor plumbing, telephones, electric lights and an outdoor bathroom for African Americans. The courthouse was built in the Renaissance Revival style, featuring large columns and a stone exterior. The building, however, burned down on April 28, 1935. In 1935, County Treasurer Grover C. Willcox desired a modern courthouse "in line with the growth of the town." As a part of Federal New Deal programs, the Public Works Administration contributed funds for a new courthouse. Designed by Corneil G. Curtis and built by notable contractor Robert E. McKee, construction finished in May 1937 on the three-story, ashlar limestone building. A combination of Art Deco and Moderne architectural styles (1920s-1940s), the courthouse's exterior showcases vertical lines, a symmetrical façade, geometrical shapes and simple ornamentation. Since its construction, little has changed about the county courthouse. Throughout its history, the Chambers County courthouse has not only acted as a focal point of the community but has also reflected the county's economic, political and social history. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2018
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chambers County, named for Texas pioneer Major General Thomas Jefferson Chambers, was organized in 1858 with its seat at Wallisville. In 1908, after rice canals and wandering hogs helped tip an election, Anahuac won the county seat; its 1912 Renaissance Revival courthouse burned in 1935. The current three-story limestone building, blending Art Deco and Moderne styles, rose in 1937 with funding from the New Deal's Public Works Administration and remains little changed today.
Why it matters
The courthouse embodies the civic ambitions of a small Gulf Coast county and the reach of New Deal public works into rural Texas during the Depression.
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Related people
- · Thomas Jefferson Chambers
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Chambersea
Anahuac, TX
Built in 1845, Chambersea was the home of Thomas Jefferson Chambers, an early Texas civic and business leader who proclaimed his devotion to the state with a "Star" window in the west gable. The modest board-and-batten house featured a distinctive spiral exterior stairway and sat at the center of a plantation with barns, outbuildings, and a lattice summer house. The home's story turned dark in 1863, when Chambers was assassinated here.
Home of Thomas Jefferson Chambers
Anahuac, TX
Thomas Jefferson Chambers (1802–1865) was one of early Texas's most consequential officials, serving as surveyor general in 1829 and as the sole superior judge before independence. An active champion of the independence cause, he later sat in the 1861 Secession Convention as Texas left the Union. A town—Chambersea, later Anahuac—and a Texas county still carry his name.
Events at Anahuac Leading to the Texas Revolution
Anahuac, TX
In the spring of 1832, Col. Juan Bradburn, commanding the Mexican garrison at Anahuac, jailed William B. Travis, Patrick C. Jack, and other American colonists and refused to hand them over for civil trial. Alarmed settlers rallied at Liberty and marched on Anahuac, and when Bradburn broke his promise to free the prisoners, they sent to Brazoria for men and cannon—precipitating the Battle of Velasco on June 26. The standoff ended when the Mexican commander from Nacogdoches released the colonists and arrested Bradburn.
Chambers County
Anahuac, TX
Chambers County was carved from Jefferson and Liberty counties and organized in 1858, taking its name from General Thomas Jefferson Chambers (1802-1865), the sole superior judge of Texas before the revolution and later a delegate to the 1861 Secession Convention. Its first county seat was Wallisville, and since 1908 the seat has been at Anahuac, near the mouth of the Trinity River on Galveston Bay.