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Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains and West » North Central Texas » Gatesville to Hillsboro » Hillsboro (Hill County) » Hill County Courthouse

Hill County Courthouse

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1891, W. C. Dodson; 1999 reconstructed, ArchiTexas. 1 N. Waco St.

Centered on a larger than normal (over three hundred feet square) courthouse square, the courthouse is one of Waco-based Dodson’s largest. Designed midway through his fifteen-year courthouse career (1883–1898), it shares the composition and tower with his courthouses for Parker County (WC1) and Hood County (WC20) and similarities to his other courthouses. A three-story central block has projecting corner pavilions that rise to tall, crested mansard roofs. On all four sides a portico with two monumental columns supporting a pediment over a segmental arch projects from the central bay. The three-stage tower has clock faces set in a convex mansard roof.

The courthouse was gutted by fire on New Year’s Day 1993, and only the limestone shell survived (see p. 19). This event was the immediate stimulus for the establishment in 1999 by Governor George W. Bush and the Texas legislature of the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program. The Hill County Courthouse was reconstructed in 1999, using Dodson’s Hood County Courthouse as a model where information was lacking.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Courthouse Square Commercial Buildings
Old Western Union Building
Texas Theater (Palace Theater)
Grimes Garage
Hillsboro City Library (U.S. Post Office)

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Hill County Courthouse", [Hillsboro, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-GH18.

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, 265-265.

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