Site of Second Travis County Courthouse and Walton Building
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1875 in term of County Judge James W. Smith. Former state officials on committees for site and building include Governor E.M. Pease, Secretary of State C.S. West, Attorney General N.G. Shelley, Treasurer James H. Raymond and legislator George Hancock. In era when Texas was gaining world renown, home of outstanding courts, able judges, brilliant bar, one tenant of its fortress-style jail was author William Sidney Porter (O. Henry), after his return to Austin in 1897 to be with his dying wife and face trial on embezzlement charges. In 1931 the county accepted a block of land in exchange for cancellation of its 99-year lease on this site. Courthouse towers and jail were removed. State offices moved in – Game, Fish and Oyster Commission, Department of Education, Banking Department. In public competition for a name, “Walton Building” was chosen for fishermen’s patron Izaak Walton (1593-1683) and for Wm. M. “Buck” Walton (1832-1915), adjutant general in Terrell’s Confederate Brigade, attorney general of Texas, famed for a colorful law career. The massive 3-story Victorian limestone structure with impressive carved entrance was razed in 1964. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1875, the second Travis County Courthouse was a massive three-story Victorian limestone building whose fortress-like jail once held the writer William Sidney Porter, later famous as O. Henry, when he returned to Austin in 1897 to face embezzlement charges. The county traded away its long lease in 1931, the courthouse was demolished, and state offices moved in under the name Walton Building. That structure was itself razed in 1964.
Why it matters
The site layers the rise of Texas civic institutions with a brush against one of America's best-loved short-story writers, showing how ordinary courthouses gather extraordinary stories.
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Related people
- · William Sidney Porter (O. Henry)
- · William M. Walton
- · E.M. Pease
Themes & tags
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