Glasscock County Courthouse (Garden City)

Year Built: 1909.

Architect: Edward Columbus Hosford.

The Glasscock County Courthouse is located in Garden City, Texas. The courthouse is located at the intersection of Texas 158 and FM 33 and is built in the Classical Revival style of stone and surrounded with columned porticoes.

Glasscock County Historical marker text:

Created in 1887. Organized 1893, with Garden City county seat. Named for George W. Glasscock (1810-68), flatboating partner of Abraham Lincoln in Illinois. Came to Texas 1834 and fought 1835-36 in the War for Independence from Mexico. Built first Central Texas flour mill, Williamson County. Georgetown was named for him. Was in Texas Legislature, 1864-68.
Of the 254 Texas counties, 42 bear Indian, French or Spanish names. 10 honor such colonizers as Stephen F. Austin, “Father of Texas”. 12 were named for Washington, Clay, and other American patriots.
96 were named for men like Glasscock who fought in the Texas War for Independence (15 dying at the Alamo), signed the Declaration of Independence, or served as statesmen in the Republic of Texas.
23 have the names of frontiersmen and pioneers.
11 honor American statesmen who worked for the annexation of Texas; 10, leaders in Texas since statehood, including jurists, ministers, educators, historians, statesmen; and 36, men prominent in the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Midland and 8 others have geographical names. San Jacinto and Val Verde were named for battles. Live Oak and Orange for trees, and Mason for a fort.

Inscription on the Courthouse Historic marker:

On May 9, 1893, a little over one month from the date of Glasscock County’s formal organization, the first county commissioner’s court issued bonds to erect a combination courthouse/jail building. L. T. Noyes of Houston, with the assistance of plasterer William T. Lovell, completed the structure on February 12, 1894. Originally, the ground floor of the building was used for court sessions and the second floor used as the jail. The 2-story stone building, later used only as a jail, features subtle Classical influences, including corner pilasters and a tall corbelled cornice.
County bonds issued through the First State Bank of Garden City in 1909 were used to employ Mutual Construction Company, Inc. of Louisville, Kentucky, and architects Edward C. Hasford & Co., of Dallas, to build a new courthouse. The 2 1/2 story Classical Revival structure, constructed of 3-foot thick native stone from a local ranch owned by Steve Calverley, was completed on August 27, 1910. It features colossal Doric columns supporting its open pediment and a horizontal belt course which follows its 2nd floor window sills.
The current Glasscock County Courthouse has been in continuous use since 1910. The original courthouse/jail structure was replaced by a new jail in 1980

Hosford also designed the Mason County Courthouse in Mason, Texas and several others in Florida.

This courthouse has one of the thickest and most luxurious lawns I have ever seen!