Presidio County Courthouse, County courthouse in Marfa, United States.
The Presidio County Courthouse is a government building in Marfa designed in Second Empire style with Italianate features, rising across five stories. The structure displays a decorative dome, ornamental brackets, and detailed Victorian woodwork inside its rooms.
The county seat moved from Fort Davis to Marfa in 1885, and the previous courthouse there was abandoned. San Antonio architect Alfred Giles won a competition against eighteen rivals to design the new building, completed in 1886 at a cost of $60,000. The county celebrated with a grand ball on January 1, 1887. A 2001 remodeling followed its 1964 Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation and 1977 National Register listing.
The county held a grand ball on January 1, 1887, to celebrate the completed building. The courthouse replaced a facility in Fort Davis that served from 1880 to 1885, before the county seat moved to Marfa. Visitors can look for the Lady Justice figure on the central dome and the Roman arches spanning the tower.
The courthouse stands at the center of Marfa, and its tower can be picked out from almost any point in town, so it works as a landmark for orientation. Entrances on all four sides lead into a central rotunda, from which the interior is reached. The building was remodeled in 2001.
The dome is topped by a figure of Lady Justice, and the tower beneath it is spanned by Roman arches. The building was designed of brick and stone quarried in Marfa itself, then finished in pink stucco, so the material came from the town around it.
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