Old Hidalgo County Courthouse
Hidalgo, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This building served as the Hidalgo County Courthouse from its construction in 1886 until the County Seat was moved to Chapin (later name Edinburg) in 1908. Made of brick from nearby Reynosa, Mexico, it originally was a two-story structure. Its cupola, roof, and second floor were destroyed in an early 20th-century fire. An important building during the county's formative years, the old Courthouse later served as an immigration and customs facility. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1963
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Raised in 1886 from brick made across the river in Reynosa, Mexico, this building served as Hidalgo County's courthouse until the county seat moved to Edinburg in 1908. Originally a two-story structure crowned with a cupola, it lost its upper floor and roof to an early twentieth-century fire. In later years it found new purpose as an immigration and customs facility on the border.
Why it matters
Standing at a river crossing between two nations, the old courthouse embodies the intertwined civic, commercial, and immigration history of the Texas-Mexico borderlands.
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