Wise County TX Courthouse Image 2

Wise County TX Courthouse Image 2

Every Texas county has a County Courthouse.
This one is in Wise County in Decatur.
Each County Courthouse I’ve ever seen has great character and architecture.

The Wise County Courthouse

The present courthouse is the forth constructed in the county. The third courthouse was destroyed by fire on January 8, 1895. The burning of the third courthouse set off a controversy over the location of the county seat. An election was held in November of 1895 to see if the new courthouse should be constructed at a new location. Voters confirmed by a wide margin that Decatur was to remain the county seat.

Plans for a courthouse were accepted from several architects, but on May 10, 1895 the contract was awarded to San Antonio architect J. Riely Gordon who agreed to also superintend the project for a fee of 5% of construction cost. The contract for construction was awarded to J.A. White who had the lowest bid of $95,000. Construction was to begin before June 1, 1895. In January of 1897, the building was completed and received by the commissioners court for a cost of about $110,000.

The Wise County Courthouse is one of several designed by architect J. Riely Gordon in Texas in the last years of the nineteenth century. This courthouse is often compared to the Ellis County Courthouse in Waxahachie Texas. Like that building, the Wise County Courthouse is based on the cruciform plan and the Romanesque Revival architectural style which were both used with great success by J. Riely Gordon in Texas.

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