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Built:
1893- 1894
Cost: $54,950
Designed by: Martin, Byrnes & Johnston
Type: Government Building
Location: 110 South Main Street
City: Lockhart
State: Texas
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Y
ou don't have to go to a big city to see great architecture. Some of the most stellar examples of the art are off the beaten path in small towns. This is an excellent example. The Caldwell County courthouse has just been renovated and brought back to its original glory. Actually, the word "original" may not apply, as this is the third building to call itself the county courthouse. It is not known if all of the Caldwell courthouses had to fight the same financial battles this one did. When it went up more than one hundred years ago people complained that the price was too high. They also complained that there wasn't any running water, and thus no modern bathrooms. So the county judge (the equivalent of a county commissioner or a freeholder in other parts of the world) ordered some of the closets be converted into rest rooms. That solved the problem, but then the water bills started coming in. They were astronomical for the time. So the county decided to lock the extra bathrooms and people would just have to suffer. The courthouse had a twin in Goliad County, Texas. But in 1942 that building's central tower as hit by lightning and removed. And in 1964 another wing was added so it no longer resembles its older, better looking, brother. The restoration work on the courthouse is splendid, and it is worth a visit. The only disappointing element of the building is how severely it has been hemmed in by asphalt. You can clearly see how the courthouse square has been eaten away by ever-widening traffic lanes so that the building that once stood as a powerful symbol of central Texas law now looks like a buoy marooned on a traffic island.
>The central tower has a four way Seth Thomas clock.
>The walls are Muldoon limestone trimmed with red Pecos sandstone.
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