{"nrhp_refnum":"81000629","name":"Harris County Courthouse of 1910","other_names":["Harris County Civil Courts Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"301 Fannin St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Houston","county":"Harris County","state":"TX","lat":29.76124443300006,"lon":-95.35964215699994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1981-05-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Law","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story neo-classical, domed county courthouse at 301 Fannin Street in Houston, Texas, occupying Courthouse Square. It was built 1909-1910 to designs by Lang & Witchell and is now called the Harris County Civil Courts Building.","why_significant":"It is the fifth courthouse on a square set aside for that purpose by Houston's founders, the Allen brothers. It is a prime example of Houston civic architecture of the 1900s and 1910s. It is the only Houston work of Lang & Witchell, a leading Dallas firm.","narrative":"Rising six stories beneath a 200-foot dome, this neo-classical courthouse fills a full block in the oldest part of downtown Houston. Built between 1909 and 1910 for Harris County, it replaced a Victorian Gothic courthouse of 1883 on a square that Houston's founders, the Allen brothers, reserved for county government. Lang & Witchell of Dallas won a 1907 design competition, and associate Charles Erwin Barglebaugh was responsible for the design. The base is pink Texas granite, with light brown pressed brick above, and each facade has a colonnaded central projection with colossal Corinthian columns. The building is the fifth courthouse on the site and the only Houston example of the firm's work. A remodeling in the 1950s removed the entry stairs on two sides, sealed the dome, and filled in the rotunda, though the exterior remains largely intact. It continues to serve as the Harris County Civil Courts Building and as a symbol of county government.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Lang & Witchell, architects","architectural_style":"Neo-classical","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in government use as the Harris County Civil Courts Building; interior heavily altered by the 1953-56 remodeling, which sealed off the dome and filled in the rotunda.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.860329-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/44/9724/40972444/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/81000629.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000629/5c3ab614bc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000629/5c3ab614bc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Ed Uthman, Houston, Texas, USA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harris_County_Courthouse_of_1910_Houston_(HDR).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ed Uthman, Houston, Texas, USA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harris_County_Courthouse_of_1910_Houston_(HDR).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972444","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1910_Harris_County_Courthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60760055"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/harris-county/harris-county-courthouse-of-1910-81000629/"}