Austin County Courthouse (Bellville)

Year Built: 1960.

Architect: Wyatt Hedrick.

The Austin County Courthouse is located in Bellville, Texas. This small structure is constructed in the center of a traffic circle in the middle of historic downtown Bellville.

This moderne style courthouse replaced the gorgeous 1888 courthouse designed by Eugene T. Heiner. The prior courthouse, which is almost universally described as “majestic, burned on April 5, 1960. The bell from the bell tower (pictured below) fell through the roof and into the basement, sustaining damage on the way down.

Austin County was the first area selected by Stephen F. Austin for his colony of anglo settlers in Texas. Bellville is the namesake of Thomas B. Bell. Bell was one of the Old Three Hundred who came to Texas in 1822 and in 1838 built a home in the Bellville area.