Zapata County Courthouse (Zapata)

Architect: Morgan Spear Associates, Inc.

Year Built: 2005.

The Zapata County Courthouse is located in the border town of Zapata, Texas. The town is not an incorporated city, but a census-designated place. The current courthouse replaced a 1953 courthouse. The 1901 courthouse now sits at the bottom of the Falcon Reservoir.

Zapata County is named for local rancher Antonio Zapata. It is bordered on the north by Webb County, on the east by Jim Hogg and Starr counties, and on the west by Mexico.

Excerpt from the TSHA Handbook:

From the Texas Revolution until the Mexican War the region was disputed territory, claimed by both Texas and Mexico. In 1839–40 Antonio Zapata and other residents joined Antonio Canales Rosillo and Jesús Cárdenas to fight for the Republic of the Rio Grande. Despite political turmoil, the population of the area continued to grow. By 1848 thirty-nine porciones and fifteen other tracts of land had been granted to individuals either by Spanish authorities or by the Mexican government. But raids by Comanches, Apaches, and other Indians continued to plague the settlers. During the 1850s Dolores Hacienda was destroyed by Indians, and sporadic attacks on isolated haciendas continued until well after the Civil War. Among the earliest Anglo-Americans in the region was Henry Redmond, who in 1839 filed a claim for a headright that became known as Habitación de Redmond. A small settlement eventually grew up at the site, which was called Habitación until 1858, when it was renamed Bellville. In 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Texas claim to the region, and the area of future Zapata County was included in Starr and Webb counties. On January 22, 1858, the legislature passed a measure establishing Zapata County, which was organized on April 26, 1858, with Bellville (later known as Carrizo and subsequently as Zapata) as the county seat.