Lavaca County Courthouse (Texas No. 41)

This was my best photo from the San Antonio trip.  At least on this day there were some clouds, rather than the gray/white sky that I experienced every other day of the trip.  I made a point of traveling through Gonzales and Halletsville east of San Antonio with the sole purpose of seeing the courthouses.  This one was a beauty.

Strikingly similar, although diminutive in size, the Lavaca County Courthouse in Hallettsville was designed by the same architect who built the courthouse in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.  Henry Hobson Richardson died shortly after completing this structure, his last project, at the age of 42.  The courthouse tower stands 170 feet from ground level and was constructed in 1897 and features incredible Romanesque arches.

The clock tower, featuring windows which are two stories tall, can be seen from miles away.  The crowning jewel is the 7-foot diameter Seth Thomas Clock which was installed a year after completion of the building.  The courthouse was described as being "well-furnished, including every room having its own hat rack and spitoon."

The first case tried in the courthouse was on June 5, 1899, after Charles McMurry shot Charles Ledbetter right out on the courthouse square.  "Killed him dead."  The old jury room was on the third floor where the jury slept, ate, and relieved themselves in their "handsomely equipped bathrooms."

In 1913 some local residents discovered that the number 13 had great significance in their city.  Hallettsville had 13 letters in its name, had a population of 1300, had 13 newspapers and an equal number of churches and saloons at 13 each.  Ripley's Believe It Or Not called it the "13" city.

As of today Hallettsville has a population of 2,550, and is the only place in the world named Hallettsville.  The founding fathers had the surname Hallett.  It is the home of the Texas Championship Domino Hall of Fame.  The 2000 census reported that 4.6 percent of the population of Lavaca County speak Czech as their first language.

Hallettsville is 250 miles south of Dallas,  110 miles east of San Antonio, 110 miles west of Houston, and 260 miles southwest of where I live.  It was a long day.

NOTE:  For those of you who are new to this blog and who also admire beautiful courthouses, if you click on "Courthouses" on the top right sidebar you can visit the other 40 courthouses I have photographed in Texas.  Texas has a total of 254 counties but my goal is to photograph the remaining 1800 courthouses which number between 75 and 80.