Courthouse

Shelby County Courthouse (1885)

Center · Shelby County · Dedicated 1885 · THC Atlas #4302000080

The stone-and-brick heart of every Texas county.

Marker Inscription

Designed in an early Romanesque Revival style and constructed of red brick. The two-story courthouse has a cruciform plan with a main east-west axis and two-story pavilions in the center of the north and south facades. A frame cupola rises from the center of the main gable roof. The courthouse is given its distinctive character by the detailed brickwork on the cornice, stringcourses, window hoods and the twelve diminutive buttresses and turrets (or tourelles) with rounded ends that resemble chimney stacks.

About this site

Shelby County Courthouse is a courthouse in Center, Shelby County, dedicated in 1885. It is one of 122 historic sites cataloged in Shelby County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas.

The site sits at 31.7933, -94.1819 near Center. The nearest cataloged historic site is Shelby County Courthouse (historic place), about 0.1 miles away. Others within a short drive include Eva Taylor Lane Home, Shelby County, and Shelby County Courthouse.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #4302000080. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.

History

The Shelby County Courthouse in Center was built between 1883 and 1885 to the Romanesque Revival design of Irish-born architect J. J. E. Gibson, who modeled the red-brick building on the castles of his native Ireland. Detailed brickwork, window hoods and twelve diminutive turrets give it its distinctive castle-like character, and it is often described as the only surviving Irish-castle-style courthouse in the United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

Sources: texastimetravel.com historic.one 1885courthouse.com

Also at or near Center, Shelby County

“Shelby County Courthouse” names 3 distinct records in Shelby County. This page is the courthouse dedicated in 1885 in Center. The others:

📍 31.7933, -94.1819 · Center, Shelby County

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