Hudspeth County Courthouse (Sierra Blanca)

Architect:  Bradford Hardie.

Year Built: 1919.

The Hudspeth County Courthouse is located in the remote West Texas town of Sierra Blanca. Hudspeth is one of the least populous counties in Texas, and none of its communities have a population of more than 2,000.

This small courthouse is unique in that it is the only remaining adobe courthouse in Texas.  Its restoration by the THC was completed in 2004.

From Wikipedia:

The single-story building is constructed from adobe made from local materials with 18-inch (46 cm) walls and is the only remaining adobe courthouse in the state. The building features Spanish Eclectice and Classic Revival styles with Mediterranean influences including Italian and Spanish Colonial Revival design elements. The exterior holds side and central arcades with arched windows but otherwise is of simple design with minimal decorative ornamentation enhancing the native construction material.

The “T”-shaped structure holds 14,000 square feet  of floor space including a small basement. The interior has wooden flooring above the basement but otherwise concrete slab floors resting directly upon the ground. In addition to county offices, the building includes a courtroom and other related court spaces.

From the TSHA Handbook:

Sierra Blanca is at the junction of the Southern Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads. The town owes its existence to the competition that surrounded the construction of the nation’s second transcontinental rail link. Collis P. Huntington‘s Southern Pacific line began building eastward from the Pacific in 1869, while Jay Gould‘s Texas and Pacific Railway began building westward from Central Texas in 1872. By November 25, 1881, the two crews had built to within ten miles of each other, and neither had any intention of yielding to the other. On the next day Huntington and Gould agreed to a compromise, and on December 15 Gould drove a silver spike to join the two roads seven miles southeast of Sierra Blanca Mountain. Transcontinental service began the next day. The town of Sierra Blanca, the site of the historic meeting, quickly grew into the most important commercial center in the area, providing stockyards and a railhead for local ranchers and serving as a shipping center for salt and other minerals.