Tarrant County Texas Courthouse
A Brief History and Photos
Construction of the Tarrant County Courthouse was completed in 1895. By then the Tarrant county voters had voiced strong disapproval by electing an entire new Commissioners' Court. With a price tag for the building of $408,000, it's no wonder. Please read the story and enjoy the images. Larger images can be seen by simply clicking on the smaller images below.
| County | Tarrant |
| County Seat | Fort Worth |
| County Population (2000) | 1,446,219 |
| County Courthouse | |
| Constructed | 1895 |
| Architect | Gunn & Curtiss |
| Designation | National Register Listing - 1970 Texas Historic Landmark - 1969 |
Description
The Tarrant County Courthouse is a substantial four-story structure constructed from pink granite in the Renaissance Revival style. The building resembles the Texas State Capital building in many ways with the clock tower being one major exception. The building is large in scale measuring 230 feet wide by 150 feet deep. The copper clad clock tower extends to an elevation of 198 feet.
The cost of construction for the courthouse was $408,840. At that time spending so much money on a public building was considered such an extravagance that the Tarrant County voters elected a new County Commissioners' Court in 1894.
Courthouse Square
The courthouse square appears to have originally occupied two city blocks with the courthouse building placed at its center. Main Street terminates, for just a moment, at the south entrance of the Tarrant County Courthouse. This street provides a magnificent central approach to the building as you come up from Sundance Square. Little else remains of the original town square.
Bibliography:
Robinson, Willard B., and Todd Webb, Texas Public Buildings of the Nineteenth Century. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974.
Texas Historical Commission, Texas Historic Sites Atlas. http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/, 2003.
Copyright © 2003 by Sam Fenstermacher
All rights reserved