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Jeff Davis County Courthouse and Jail

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1911, L. L. Thurmon and Co.; 2003 rehabilitated, The Williams Company. 101 State St.

This two-story Classical Revival building, capped by an octagonal cupola, dome, and clock tower, is built of alternating courses of cream-colored concrete block (cast by the Dougherty Company of Alpine) and red rock-faced sandstone from the nearby Sproul Ranch. Porticos on the north and south sides consist of six massive concrete Tuscan columns supporting wide pediments, and the recessed portico loggias are faced with gray stucco scored to look like stone. Pediments, cornices, and tower are painted pressed metal. This is one of six Texas county courthouses by Dallas-based Thurmon (three still standing are in Franklin, Henderson, and Kinney counties), and all share a common massing and similar cupolas. The courthouse was rehabilitated with funding from the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.

Across from the courthouse at 200 S. Front Street, the congregation of the First United Methodist Church (1884) still holds services in its adobe church, a simple gable-roofed rectangle with a small bell tower over the entrance. When built, it was the first Protestant church between San Antonio and El Paso.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Jeff Davis County Courthouse and Jail", [Fort Davis, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-FV27.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 448-448.

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