Comal County Courthouse
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1846 Comal County held its first court session in the home of its county clerk, Conrad Seabaugh. Courthouse facilities acquired in 1849 proved inadequate and were replaced with a 2-story building at the southeast corner of the city plaza in 1860. The building fell into disrepair and in 1898 the county chose famous Texas courthouse architect J. Riley Gordon to design a new courthouse. Gordon's original design, incorporating four entrances compatible with the building's proposed location at the center of the plaza, was nevertheless retained when this corner lot site was chosen instead . Austin contractors Fischer and Lamie used stone quarried 10 miles north of New Braunfels on land owned by Texas/U.S.statesman Edward Mandell House to build this courthouse in 1898. The 3 1/2 story Romanesque-style structure features rounded pavilion entrances often employed by Gordon and includes dramatic massing and superb detail in its stone work. A 1929-31 large stone jail addition was designed by Jeremiah Schmidt of New Braunfels. The courthouse underwent considerable interior and minor exterior renovations in 1966-67 and 1987. The courthouse reflects New Braunfel's German heritage and the spirit of Comal County at the turn of the twentieth century. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1993
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Comal County held its first court in a clerk's home in 1846 and cycled through cramped quarters before commissioning renowned Texas courthouse architect J. Riley Gordon in 1898. Gordon's Romanesque design, built of stone quarried on land owned by statesman Edward Mandell House, features his signature rounded pavilion entrances and richly detailed masonry. A stone jail addition followed around 1930, and the building has been carefully renovated since.
Why it matters
The courthouse stands as a monument to New Braunfels's German heritage and to the golden age of grand Texas county courthouse architecture.
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Related people
- · J. Riley Gordon
- · Edward Mandell House
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
New Braunfels: County Seat of Comal County
New Braunfels, TX
This land had long been home to Karankawa, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa, and Waco peoples when the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants sent thousands of colonists to Texas in the mid-1840s. Led by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, several hundred founded New Braunfels on Good Friday, 1845, on land bought from the Garza family and parceled out by lottery. By 1850 it ranked among the largest cities in Texas, humming with craftsmen, mills, breweries, and kilns.
Site of Old Schmitz Hotel
New Braunfels, TX
The oldest part of this building rose around 1851 from local cedar and limestone, and in 1858 German immigrant Jacob Schmitz bought it as the new home of his Guadalupe Hotel. The traveling writer Frederick Law Olmsted praised the inn's Old World atmosphere as he passed through the German settlements of central Texas. A third story was added in 1873 and the hotel took Schmitz's name, though its original facade has since been much changed.
Eiband and Fischer General Mercantile
New Braunfels, TX
A general store opened at the corner of Castell and San Antonio Streets in 1846, just a year after New Braunfels was founded, and passed through a succession of German-connected owners over the next century. Growing into one of the region's most successful mercantiles, Eiband & Fischer sold everything from groceries and china to farm machinery, and also served as cotton buyers and short-term bankers. A 1947 fire finally consumed the store, though its surviving annex still stands.
Stephen Klein Home
New Braunfels, TX
Built in 1846 by Stephen Klein, one of Comal County's first commissioners, this house used the German fachwerk method of timber framing filled with masonry—a signature of the immigrants who settled New Braunfels. In 1868 it passed to Edward Naegelin, Sr. The state recognized it as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1967.