Hutchinson County Courthouse
Stinnett, Hutchinson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Hutchinson County, named for prominent judge and writer Anderson Hutchinson, was one of 54 counties created out of the District of Bexar in 1876 by the Texas Legislature. It was not until 1901, however, that the county was officially organized. That year a temporary county courthouse was erected in the county seat of Plemons. A permanent courthouse was built in Plemons by contractor E. E. Ackers. Stinnett replaced Plemons as Hutchinson County seat in 1926. The county courthouse was temporarily housed in an office building in downtown Stinnett in 1926 before this courthouse was erected in 1927 at a time of major oil discoveries in the area. Designed by Amarillo architect W. C. Townes and built by local contractor C. S. Lambie & Company, the Spanish Renaissance Revival style building also housed the county jail. It features brick construction with cut-stone ornamentation, a 3-bay primary facade with grand entry bay, raised basement with end entries, metal sash windows and second floor window with round-arch stone lintels. Friezes at the east and west entrances of the courthouse depict the petroleum, farm and ranch, and cattle industries, historically the three principal commercial enterprises in the area. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Hutchinson County, carved from the Bexar District in 1876 and finally organized in 1901, moved its seat from Plemons to Stinnett in 1926 just as major oil discoveries transformed the Panhandle. The 1927 courthouse, designed by Amarillo architect W. C. Townes in Spanish Renaissance Revival style, rose in brick and cut stone and also housed the county jail. Friezes at its entrances celebrate petroleum, farming and ranching, and cattle — the three industries that made the county.
Why it matters
A courthouse built at the height of an oil boom shows how a Panhandle county announced its arrival, and its carved friezes are a self-portrait of the economy that paid for it.
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Related people
- · Anderson Hutchinson
- · W. C. Townes
- · C. S. Lambie & Company
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Drift Fence
Stinnett, TX
After Charles Goodnight founded the JA Ranch in 1876 and Thomas S. Bugbee established Hutchinson County's first ranch soon after, soaring beef prices sent cattle streaming into the Texas Panhandle's open grasslands. To keep migrating herds from drifting into their winter range, members of the Panhandle Stock Association strung a 200-mile barbed-wire "drift fence" in 1882-85. It worked too well: in the fierce winters of 1886 and 1887 thousands of cattle piling against the wire froze or were trampled, and the staggering losses spurred laws limiting fences on public land.
Ace Borger Home
Borger, TX
Asa P. "Ace" Borger, a Missouri-born townsite promoter, platted this Panhandle boomtown in 1926 and worked to tame a rowdy oil camp into a lasting community. In 1928–29 he and his wife Elizabeth built this two-story house—the first brick residence in Borger. It stayed in the family for three generations. Ace earned a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation in 1976.
Site of Historic Drift Fence
Sunray, TX
Before the mid-1880s the open Texas Panhandle had no range fences, so winter blizzards drove cattle from Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas south onto Texas ranches, overgrazing the Canadian River breaks and mixing herds. To stop the costly spring sorting, ranchers with brands like the Turkey Track, Bar C, and LIT joined to build a single drift fence along their northern lines — a four-strand, four-barb barrier some 200 miles long, running from the Panhandle's corner into New Mexico. Built from roughly 65 carloads of wire and posts hauled from Dodge City, most of it was torn down by 1890 to comply with a state law against fencing public land.
Drift Fence
Stinnett, TX
After Charles Goodnight founded the JA Ranch in 1876 and Thomas Bugbee opened Hutchinson County's first spread the same year, soaring beef prices sent cattle pouring across the Panhandle's open grasslands. To keep herds drifting down from the north out of their winter range, members of the Panhandle Stock Association strung barbed wire along a 200-mile "drift fence" in 1882–85. It worked too well: in the brutal winters of 1886 and 1887, cattle fleeing the storms piled against the wire and froze or were trampled by the thousands, and the staggering losses helped spur laws limiting fences on public land.