Old Blanco County Courthouse, Second Empire county courthouse in Blanco, United States.
The Old Blanco County Courthouse stands at the corner of 3rd and Main Streets in Blanco, Texas. Architect Frederick Ernst Ruffini designed it in the Second Empire style, and it opened in 1886. The building is now a multi-use structure leased to business tenants and rented out for special events.
Designed by Frederick Ernst Ruffini in the Second Empire style, the courthouse opened in 1886. It served as the county seat only until 1890, when the seat moved to Johnson City. From 1893 it housed classrooms for nearly a decade, again in 1919, and later held banks, a newspaper, a restaurant and a hospital for 24 years. It became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1972.
The building's name comes from its first role: Blanco County's courthouse from 1886 until the seat moved to Johnson City in 1890. Since then it has housed banks, a tax collector, a museum, a restaurant, the local newspaper and, for 24 years, the area hospital. Today it is leased to business tenants and rented out for special events.
The building sits on Main Street in downtown Blanco and is open for visitors to explore. It is best to check ahead for tour times to fully experience the interior.
The Coen brothers filmed the building's interior for their 2010 adaptation of True Grit. The courthouse had already spent 24 years as the area hospital before that, and since 1986 it has been owned by the preservation society that saved it from being moved off its lot.
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