{"nrhp_refnum":"76002055","name":"Nueces County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Mesquite and Belden Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Corpus Christi","county":"Nueces County","state":"TX","lat":27.801851034000038,"lon":-97.39618925599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-06-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story Classical Revival county courthouse at Mesquite and Belden streets in Corpus Christi, Texas, built in 1913-14 to designs by Harvey L. Page on the courthouse block set aside in 1853.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as the third Nueces County courthouse and one of the oldest remaining buildings in Corpus Christi. Local citizens saw its preservation as a first step toward saving the few remaining 19th and early 20th century buildings downtown. It also served as a storm refuge and as housing for jailers and county officials.","narrative":"Corpus Christi's old Nueces County Courthouse occupies the block at Mesquite and Belden streets that county commissioners designated for a courthouse in 1853. The current building, designed by San Antonio architect Harvey L. Page and built in 1913-14 at a cost of $250,000, is the third courthouse on the site. It is a Classical Revival structure of reinforced steel faced in soft gray brick with white terra cotta trim, a red roof, and an Ionic colonnade on the main east facade. A 1930s addition to the west changed its original T-shape to a cross. Courtrooms and offices filled the lower floors, while the jail occupied the top two. Jailers and some officials lived inside, and the building sheltered hundreds during the 1919 hurricane and Hurricane Carla in 1961. It is regarded as one of the city's oldest surviving buildings, and its preservation was seen locally as a first step in protecting remaining historic structures downtown.","period_of_significance":"1913-14","architect_builder":"Harvey L. Page","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied by county government at the time of nomination (1976); county offices were to move to a new courthouse in late 1976, and local citizens hoped for adaptive reuse.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.791701-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/6/9731/40973106/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/76002055.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002055/a8b565f332-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002055/a8b565f332-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:25or6to4","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1914_Nueces_County_Courthouse_3.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:25or6to4</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1914_Nueces_County_Courthouse_3.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973106","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Nueces_County_Courthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105320241"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/nueces-county/nueces-county-courthouse-76002055/"}