{mosapa album="Courthouses"}
Old Blanco County Courthouse
On Main Street between Third and Fourth streets in Blanco, is a Texas Historic Landmark. Though not in use as a courthouse since 1890, it remains effective as a visitors’ center, home of other businesses and host to weddings and parties. Since the days of its use as a courthouse, the stone building has served as the town’s hospital, a school and was a barbecue restaurant. It was boarded up in the mid-1990s, but was later restored by the Blanco County Courthouse Preservation Society. The Second Empire-style courthouse is noted as “one of the finest examples of courthouse architecture from the late 19th century in Texas” by the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1885-1886 by Austin architect Frederick Ernst Ruffini.
Blanco County Courthouse
101 E. Pecan St. in Johnson City, is the most recent of three courthouses for Blanco County. The courthouse, displaying Classical Revival architecture, was designed by Henry T. Phelps. The county seat was moved from Blanco to Johnson City in 1890.
Burnet County Courthouse
220 S. Pierce St. in Burnet, was designed by Willis Environmental Engineering in Marble Falls in the Moderne architectural style. The courthouse was built in 1937 out of locally quarried granite, and it was expanded in 1974 with a design by Willis Environmental Engineering of Marble Falls. Burnet County has been home to three courthouses, one in 1854 which burned, one in 1874 and the current one.
Lampasas County Courthouse
501 E. Fourth St. in Lampasas, is the third oldest Texas courthouse still in use for county government. Built in 1883, it has been restored to its original glory with reflections of Second Empire and the Italianate styles. The courthouse was designed by famous architect W.C. Dodson. The courthouse hosts a central clock tower with a Seth Thomas Clock, arched windows and a mansard rook. The clockwork was moved to the first floor for public viewing. The county’s first courthouse was destroyed in a fire in 1871 while floodwaters swept away the next building merely two years later.
Llano County Courthouse
801 Ford St. in Llano, is the county’s fourth courthouse. It was completed Aug. 1, 1893, after a fire Jan. 22, 1892 destroyed the previous courthouse. Trimmed in Texas red sandstone, marble and granite, it is one of the few remaining Texas courthouses built before 1900. It was designed by A.O. Watson and Jacob Larmour in the Romanesque Revival style during the “Golden Era” of Texas courthouse construction.
Mason County Courthouse
201 Fort McKavitt St. in Mason, is a Beaux Arts Style building with a center dome and clock tower. It was constructed in 1909 and features gable front porticoes with two-story doric columns and rusticated stonework with contrasting stone lintels. The courthouse is the third to serve Mason County. It was made after the first burned in 1877 and the second sustained a great deal of fire damage in 1900.
