Eastland County Courthouse
Eastland, Eastland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Texas Legislature created Eastland County in 1858, but sparse settlement delayed organization until 1873, when Merriman (8 mi. NE) became the first county seat. Charles Connellee and Jack Daugherty platted the new town of Eastland near the center of the county, and by a vote of 67 to 60 the county seat moved here in 1875. The commissioners met in a stone building across from the town square. The Texas & Pacific Railway arrived in October 1880 and spurred growth, but when the Texas Central Railway created the new town of Cisco, Eastland had to survive a county seat election in August 1881. An 1896 fire destroyed the 1883 courthouse, and Cisco again forced a county seat election, receiving a majority of votes but not the required two-thirds margin. In 1898, the county completed a new three-story courthouse and jail in Eastland.Following oil and natural gas booms in the 1910s and 1920s, voters approved $300,000 in bonds for a new buiding designed by the Dallas architectural firm of Otto H. Lang and Frank O. Witchell. The grand new building opened by December 1928 with space for county, district and appellate courts and offices. The Art Deco style courthouse exhibits stepped massing in its design, with prominent wings accenting a central tower. The building is clad in brick with ornate decorative terra cotta trim and ornamentation. Details include carved eagles, shields and medallions, pilasters, tripartite arched entryways, and stylized decorative banding. The Eastland County Courthouse gained widespread fame as the final resting place for "Old Rip," a celebrated horned toad reputedly liberated from the cornerstone of the prior courthouse.Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2007
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Eastland County was created in 1858 but sat so thinly settled that it was not organized until 1873, and its county seat bounced between Merriman, the new town of Eastland, and rival Cisco through a string of hard-fought elections. The Texas & Pacific Railway's arrival in 1880 spurred growth, and the oil and gas booms of the 1910s and 1920s bankrolled a grand Art Deco courthouse, opened in 1928 with carved eagles, shields, and a central tower. The building also gained fame as the home of "Old Rip," a horned toad legend said to have survived sealed in the previous courthouse cornerstone.
Why it matters
The courthouse's rise from frontier county-seat squabbles to an oil-financed Art Deco showpiece captures how railroads and petroleum transformed rural Texas within a single lifetime.
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Related people
- · Charles Connellee
- · Jack Daugherty
Themes & tags
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