Year Built: 1922
Architect: Smith & Townes
The Briscoe County Courthouse was built in Silverton, Texas.
The county is named after Andrew Briscoe (November 25, 1810 – October 4, 1849). Briscoe was a soldier and a revolutionary. Briscoe was an organizer of the Texas Revolution and was a signee of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Briscoe was a veteran of the battle at San Jacinto. Briscoe was the first Chief Justice of Harrisburg County, Texas.
Thomas J. Braidfoot settled in present day Silverton. Supposedly, his wife came up with the name because of the silver reflections off the lakes. On March 15, 1892, Silverton defeated two rival cities, Tarlton and Linguish, for the county seat in an election.
In 1894 a jail was built of stone from Tule Canyon was completed; its first occupant was the county sheriff, Miner Crawford, who was jailed as a joke during its opening. Braidfoot’s two-story house was the town’s first hotel. The city of Silverton has suffered from prairie fires, grasshoppers, dust storms, and cyclones. Its worst disaster occurred on the night of May 15, 1957, when a tornado killed twenty-one people and did over $1 million worth of damage.
