{"nrhp_refnum":"71000935","name":"Fredericksburg Memorial Library","other_names":["McDermatt Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Courthouse Sq.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fredericksburg","county":"Gillespie County","state":"TX","lat":30.275436770000056,"lon":-98.87368331099998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-03-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The second Gillespie County Courthouse, a two-story limestone building on Courthouse Square in Fredericksburg, Texas, built in 1881-1882 to designs by San Antonio architect Alfred Giles. It now serves as the Fredericksburg Memorial Library.","why_significant":"The building is cited for its excellence in design and craftsmanship, using quarried local limestone, fine trim and detailed doors and hardware. It was designed by Alfred Giles, a notable San Antonio architect, after a county design competition. It was later restored in 1967 for reuse as a library and community hall.","narrative":"Fredericksburg's old county courthouse, completed in 1882, now serves as the town's memorial library. Alfred Giles of San Antonio won the commission in 1881 after the county held a design competition with a fifty dollar prize. John Heinen and James Courtney built it for twenty-three thousand dollars, funded by the sale of seventeen thousand acres of West Texas school land. The two-story, H-plan building has entrances on all four sides, rough-faced limestone walls from the Dietz quarries, and white limestone trim from quarries near Luckenbach. Porches with paired columns, a heavy modillioned cornice, a tin standing-seam roof and copper hardware with a hummingbird design add to its character. A newer courthouse opened in 1939, and the old building then housed offices and storage for twenty-seven years. A 1967 restoration, directed by architect Milton M. Moseley, converted it to a library with a community hall upstairs.","period_of_significance":"1881-1882","architect_builder":"Alfred Giles (architect); John Heinen and James Courtney (contractors); Milton M. Moseley (restoration architect)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored in 1967; in excellent condition and used as a library with a community meeting hall on the upper floor.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.803402-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/86/9720/40972086/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/71000935.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000935/51469a5ba2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000935/51469a5ba2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fredericksburg_memorial_library_2008.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:Fredericksburg_memorial_library_2008.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"70000749","name":"Fredericksburg Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/fredericksburg-historic-district-70000749/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972086","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredericksburg_Memorial_Library","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5499207"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/gillespie-county/fredericksburg-memorial-library-71000935/"}