{"nrhp_refnum":"71000929","name":"De Witt County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Bounded by N. Gonzales, E. Live Oak, N. Clinton, and E. Courthouse Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cuero","county":"DeWitt County","state":"TX","lat":29.09178608800005,"lon":-97.28886391599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-05-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story sandstone county courthouse with a six-story clock tower in Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas, completed in 1896 and designed by A. O. Watson of Austin.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a late nineteenth-century Texas building in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, strongly influenced by H. H. Richardson's Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh. It replaced a courthouse that burned in 1894 and reflects Cuero's long-contested rise as county seat. It was nominated under architecture.","narrative":"Rising above the town of Cuero, this three-story sandstone courthouse carries a six-story clock tower and is built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Cream-colored rusticated stone forms the walls, with red sandstone trim, arched openings, clustered porch columns and decorative quoins. Architect A. O. Watson of Austin drew strongly on H. H. Richardson's Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh, and the arcaded porch and tower echo that building. The courthouse was finished in 1896 by builder Eugene Heiner of Houston, after fire destroyed the earlier frame courthouse in 1894. Bonds of $70,000 paid for the new building and its furnishings. Cuero became county seat in 1876 after some thirty years of feuding among towns, and the county records had been moved at least four times. In 1956 the interior was modernized, with air-conditioning and automatic elevators added. It remains a county government building and was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1966.","period_of_significance":"1896","architect_builder":"A. O. Watson of Austin (architect/contractor); Eugene Heiner of Houston (builder)","architectural_style":"Richardsonian Romanesque","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed in good condition, altered, on its original site; public government use. The interior was modernized in 1956 with central air-conditioning and automatic elevators.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.813134-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/9717/40971789/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/71000929.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000929/b1871774c6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000929/b1871774c6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dewitt_courthouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dewitt_courthouse.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"88001996","name":"Cuero Commercial Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/cuero-commercial-historic-district-88001996/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971789","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107318599"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/dewitt-county/de-witt-county-courthouse-71000929/"}