Plaza Constitucional (Municipal Square)
Liberty, Liberty County, Texas
Marker Inscription
J. Francisco Madero, appointed by Mexican government to grant land titles, platted Liberty town tract, 1831, with 49 squares in inner city. Five were set aside for public usage-- this square has always been site of municipal buildings. In May 1831, an ayuntamiento (city council) was elected; also the first alcalde (mayor), Hugh B. Johnston. This city government was dissolved that same year by Juan D. Bradburn, the garrison commander of Anahuac. The north portion of present city hall was constructed, 1939; the south part, 1959.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When J. Francisco Madero platted the town of Liberty in 1831 under Mexican authority, he set aside five of the inner city's squares for public use, and this one has always held municipal buildings. That May, residents elected an ayuntamiento and their first alcalde, Hugh B. Johnston, only to have the young government dissolved the same year by Anahuac garrison commander Juan Davis Bradburn. City halls rose here in 1939 and 1959, continuing the square's civic role.
Why it matters
The square marks the birth of self-government in one of Texas's oldest towns and the friction with Mexican authority that helped spark the revolution.
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Related people
- · J. Francisco Madero
- · Hugh B. Johnston
- · Juan Davis Bradburn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Casa Consistatorial (Courthouse Square)
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When Mexico opened its Texas frontier to settlers, land commissioner J. Francisco Madero platted this square in 1831 as the public heart of a new town on the Atascosito lands. Colonists narrowly chose Smith's Plantation — soon renamed Liberty — over Moss Bluff, and from a 22-foot log courthouse they exercised a rare gift of local self-government. Sam Houston later argued cases here, and David G. Burnet's appeal of a verdict tried in Liberty carried him to the 1836 convention that made him the Republic of Texas's first president.
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First mapped in 1831 under the laws of Coahuila and Texas, then the northernmost state of Mexico, this square was set aside as the site of a jail and houses of correction where prison sentences would be served through labor. By 1885 the town had grown around it, folding the old plaza into the mercantile district while jail functions moved elsewhere. The site preserves a trace of Mexican civic planning in what would become an American town.