Deaf Smith Courthouse, 1910
Hereford, Deaf Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Brick with marble veneer and interior. Second marble courthouse built in U.S. Cost was $125,000. After hotly-contested bond issue election, Judge John Slaton and winners paraded Main Street behind the band. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Hereford's 1910 courthouse rose in brick faced with marble, inside and out, at a cost of $125,000 and was celebrated as only the second marble courthouse built in the United States. Its approval came only after a bruising bond-issue election, and the victors marked their win by parading down Main Street behind a band led by Judge John Slaton. It stands as a proud statement of civic ambition in the young Texas Panhandle.
Why it matters
The courthouse captures how newly settled Panhandle counties poured pride and money into monumental public buildings as symbols of permanence and progress.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John Slaton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Deaf Smith County
Hereford, TX
Created in 1876 and organized in 1890, this Panhandle county honors Erastus "Deaf" Smith, the celebrated scout and spy of the Texas Revolution who distinguished himself for bravery at the Battle of San Jacinto. Its county seat began as La Plata — often called Grenada — before Hereford took the role in 1899.
Ghost Towns of Deaf Smith County
Hereford, TX
Across the Texas Panhandle, the settlement map is written as much in vanished towns as in surviving ones, and Deaf Smith County is a vivid example. La Plata, once known as Grenada, was a bustling county seat and a key stop on the New Mexico–Amarillo Road in the 1880s and 1890s—until its buildings and county government were simply hauled off to Hereford in 1898. Nearby Ayr, Escarbada on the great XIT Ranch, Dean, Mirage, and Kelso each flickered into existence as post offices before fading away entirely.
Pioneer Windmill
Hereford, TX
The windmill—a wind-driven pump for drawing up groundwater—transformed the arid High Plains, making gardens and eventually irrigated farming possible where surface water was scarce. Together with barbed wire, it let settlers and stockmen occupy the region in the 1870s, and so many towers once dotted the landscape around Hereford that the town earned the nickname "Windmill City." This marker celebrates that humble but decisive technology.
The E. B. Black Residence
Hereford, TX
Alabama-born E. B. Black moved his family to Hereford in 1901 and built a thriving life as a furniture merchant and rancher on the Texas Panhandle. In 1909 he engaged contractor Emmett Vanderburgh to raise this Late Victorian home, which became a frequent gathering place for the town's church and cultural life. The Black family lived there until 1977, and it was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark the following year.