{"nrhp_refnum":"91000336","name":"Cooke County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Public Square, bounded by California, Dixon, Main and Commerce Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Gainesville","county":"Cooke County","state":"TX","lat":33.62396320700003,"lon":-97.14563662999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-03-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story, cruciform-plan county courthouse on the Public Square in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas, completed in 1911 and designed by the Dallas firm Lang & Witchell.","why_significant":"It was an architecturally progressive design for a small-town Texas courthouse, combining Beaux Arts massing, Sullivanesque interior detail and an emerging modernistic aesthetic. It is also tied to Cooke County government for roughly 80 years. It was nominated at the local level under Criteria A and C.","narrative":"Cooke County Courthouse occupies the Public Square in Gainesville, in north central Texas. Completed late in 1911 at a cost of about $150,000, it replaced an 1880 courthouse that burned in 1909. Voters approved a $125,000 bond issue during a local recession, and the project drew some controversy. The Dallas firm Lang & Witchell designed it, with Garrett & Collins of Gainesville as supervising architects and M.P. Kelly as contractor. The three-story cruciform building rises from a raised basement of ashlar limestone, with buff brick above, terra cotta ornament and a domed central tower. Its exterior follows Beaux Arts formality, while the angular terra cotta and the interior atrium, with foliate capitals in the manner of Louis Sullivan, show a modern influence. The atrium remains original. The courthouse was a gathering place for farm families and has been central to county government through the twentieth century. Three monuments stand on the grounds.","period_of_significance":"1911-1941","architect_builder":"(Otto) Lang & (Frank) Witchell, Dallas (architects); Garrett & Collins, Gainesville (supervising architects); Col. M.P. Kelly, Gainesville (contractor)","architectural_style":"Beaux Arts; Sullivanesque","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still used as a courthouse; exterior alterations are limited to replacement of original doors and windows, and the central atrium survives in original condition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:21.933775-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/85/9715/40971585/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/91000336.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91000336/e6d52aad5d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91000336/e6d52aad5d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cooke_county_tx_courthouse_2015.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:Cooke_county_tx_courthouse_2015.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971585","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooke_County_Courthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107319152"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/cooke-county/cooke-county-courthouse-91000336/"}