Hall County Courthouse
Memphis, Hall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1876, the Texas Legislature created Hall County, which organized in 1890 with Memphis as county seat. Two courthouses - a frame building facing the town aquare (1890-93) and a two-story brick building on this site (1893-1922) - preceded the current Classical Revival Building. During construction, commissioners court met in the Hall County National Bank. Architectural firm Page and Brother of Austin designed this three-story building with raised basement, built of reinforced concrete and structural clay tile with dark brick and cast stone veneer. All elevations have cast stone fluted composite order columns supporting entablatures and pediments at the entrances. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2008
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Hall County was created in 1876 and organized in 1890 with Memphis as its seat. Two earlier courthouses — a frame building and a brick one — served before the county commissioned this three-story Classical Revival building, designed by the Austin firm Page and Brother and completed in the early 1920s. Its cast-stone columns, pediments, and fluted composite orders gave the county a dignified civic centerpiece.
Why it matters
Monumental county courthouses like this one were the proud civic anchors of the Texas plains, announcing that a frontier county had come of age.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Fairview Cemetery
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Memphis's oldest burial ground was carved from the corner of the town plat just months before the community was chosen as the seat of Hall County, out on the Texas Panhandle plains. J.C. Montgomery, remembered as the "Father of Memphis," rests in its oldest section, and the earliest marked grave belongs to Ben F. Taylor, who died in 1890. Among the notable dead is W.A. Johnson—newspaper editor, state senator, and lieutenant governor of Texas—whose grave reflects the town's early prominence.
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