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Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast » South Texas » Kingsville to Alice » Sarita and Vicinity (Kenedy County) » Kenedy County Courthouse

Kenedy County Courthouse

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1921, Henry T. Phelps. Turcotte St. at La Parra Ave.

Originally part of Cameron County, Sarita was not intended to be a seat of government at its inception. The courthouse reflects the town's new political role after Kenedy County was partitioned in 1921 from Willacy County to the south due to conflicting interests between established ranchers, and newcomer farmers, who were considered too aggressive and disdainful of the traditional lifeways of South Texas. Set on a green lawn, the three-story, red brick Classical Revival courthouse, now painted white, was placed on an empty city lot adjacent to a park. Similar in scale and style to Phelp's Willacy County Courthouse in nearby Raymondville ( MR31), the Sarita courthouse sits closer to the ground without a podium and features Tuscan columns supporting a raised, smooth-surfaced, unadorned parapet at the center of its main elevation.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Kenedy Ranch Museum (Kenedy Pasture Company Building)
Kenedy County Rest Area

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Kenedy County Courthouse", [Sarita, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-KA13.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 260-260.

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