Georgetown Fire House and Old City Hall
Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Designed by C.I. Belford and constructed in 1892 by C.W. Schell, this building originally housed the mayor's office, city council chambers, city jail, fire department, and the Georgetown Water Co. Over the years, it also has served as a meeting place for the Second Baptist Church and as chamber of commerce offices. The building, which features some Italianate detailing, is one of few remaining examples of 19th-century city hall-fire stations in Texas. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
By the 1890s Georgetown had grown enough to need a proper seat of government, and in 1892 it gathered its civic functions under one roof. This building held the mayor's office, council chambers, jail, fire department, and even the water company, a compact expression of a maturing frontier town. It survives as one of the few 19th-century combined city hall–fire stations left in Texas.
Why it matters
Combined municipal buildings like this show how small Texas towns organized public services as they grew from settlements into governed communities.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Old Dimmitt Building
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Erected in 1901 as a hotel, the Dimmitt Building rose just as Georgetown settled into a prosperous county-seat town. Over the decades it reinvented itself again and again, serving as mercantile stores, the town's first movie house, an auto dealership, a drugstore, a dental office, and a bus depot. A 1960 remodeling preserved its native-stone Spanish arches, columns, and turrets.
Founding of Georgetown
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According to local tradition, Williamson County's first commissioners gathered under a great oak here in May 1848 to choose a county seat. Landowner George Washington Glasscock offered a tract bounded by the tree and the San Gabriel River, and in gratitude the commissioners named the new town Georgetown in his honor. The landmark oak stood until a storm felled it in 1886.
In Memory of George Washington Glasscock, Sr.
Georgetown, TX
George Washington Glasscock came to Texas in 1834 and fought for its independence from Mexico, having already served in the Black Hawk War alongside frontier volunteers. A surveyor, soldier, and legislator, he helped organize Williamson County and donated land for its seat, which was named Georgetown in his honor. Both a Texas city and a county bear his name.