{"nrhp_refnum":"76002004","name":"Bell County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Public Sq.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Belton","county":"Bell County","state":"TX","lat":31.056012272000032,"lon":-97.46357044499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-12-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Three-story stone county courthouse on the public square in Belton, Bell County, Texas, designed in 1883 by J.N. Preston and Sons of Austin and built 1884-85 by contractor Ben D. Lee.","why_significant":"The nomination cites it for architecture, as a Renaissance Revival courthouse of golden local stone with four porticoed facades. It is the third courthouse on Belton's town square and has served as the county government center since 1885. A contemporary newspaper praised it as surpassing other new Texas courthouses in beauty of design.","narrative":"Belton's Bell County Courthouse occupies a full block of the town square and was designed in 1883 by J.N. Preston and Sons of Austin, architects later noted for the Driskill Hotel. Built of golden local stone, the three-story Renaissance Revival building measures 155 by 76 feet and presents four porticoed facades. Ben D. Lee of Belton won the construction contract with a bid of $64,965; the cornerstone was laid in June 1884 and the county accepted the building in May 1885. It was the third courthouse on the square, following a tiny frame building of 1851 and a limestone structure finished in 1859. Originally a 125-foot tower topped by a statue of the Goddess of Justice rose above the roof, and sheet-metal ornament from a Fort Worth firm decorated the exterior. The tower, statue and most metalwork are gone, and a 1950 remodeling changed the interior, yet the building still serves as the county courthouse.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"J.N. Preston and Sons of Austin (architects); Ben D. Lee of Belton (contractor)","architectural_style":"Renaissance Revival (with Neo-Classical Revival elements)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in use as the county courthouse; occupied and publicly accessible, though considerably altered, including removal of the central tower and many sheet-metal details and a 1950 remodeling.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.483739-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/60/9710/40971060/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/76002004.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002004/17acb1f029-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002004/17acb1f029-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.5","author":"CMBJ","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Belton_Courthouse_(1).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">CMBJ</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Belton_Courthouse_(1).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"90001868","name":"Belton Commercial Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/belton-commercial-historic-district-90001868/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971060","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_County_Courthouse_(Texas)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q106881282"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/bell-county/bell-county-courthouse-76002004/"}