{"nrhp_refnum":"78003095","name":"McClennan County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Public Sq.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Waco","county":"McLennan County","state":"TX","lat":31.557488990000024,"lon":-97.13347128299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A county courthouse on Public Square in Waco, McLennan County, Texas, built in 1901-1902 to designs by J. Riely Gordon. It is the fourth courthouse in the county's history.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is one of the finest Classical buildings in Texas, with Beaux Arts design on a monumental scale similar in composition to the Texas Capitol. It also notes its long service to county government. Reviewers accepted it mainly for architectural significance, finding the historical argument weakly supported.","narrative":"Completed in 1902, this courthouse on Public Square in Waco was designed by San Antonio architect J. Riely Gordon and built by contractor Tom Lovell of Denton, with local architect W. C. Dodson supervising. It replaced three earlier courthouses, the first of which, built in 1850, was a thirty-foot-square structure costing $400. Voters approved a $250,000 bond in 1900 to pay for the new building. The cruciform building is Beaux Arts Classical on a monumental scale, with paired Corinthian columns, decorated pilasters, pediments and a dome crowned by a statue of Themis, the Greek personification of justice. Its base is quarry-faced granite, the upper walls are cut limestone, marble provides accents, and the structure is steel and concrete. The form describes its composition as similar to that of the Texas Capitol and ranks it among the finest Classical buildings in Texas. A granite cornerstone reads that it was built by the taxpayers of McLennan County, and the building still serves county government.","period_of_significance":"1901-1902","architect_builder":"J. Riely Gordon (architect); W. C. Dodson (supervising architect); Tom Lovell (contractor)","architectural_style":"Beaux Arts Classical","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in daily use as the McLennan County courthouse; the form marks it as public ownership with unrestricted access.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.530455-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/97/9729/40972997/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/78003095.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003095/553d0853af-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003095/553d0853af-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mcclennan_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:Mcclennan_courthouse.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"11001094","name":"Waco Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/waco-downtown-historic-district-11001094/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972997","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107317664"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/mclennan-county/mcclennan-county-courthouse-78003095/"}