Colorado County Courthouse Historic District

Columbus, Texas, grew around its courthouse square, and this district preserves that core. Twelve full blocks and parts of thirteen more make up an L-shaped area of shops, offices and homes. Commercial buildings cluster along Milam Street, where the 1100 block keeps much of its original character. The Stafford Opera House of 1886, designed by Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton in Richardsonian Romanesque style, is the most commanding structure. Nearby stand the courthouse and an 1883 circular brick water tower and fire house, now used as a meeting hall. Most houses are modest one-story wood-frame buildings with Victorian decoration, alongside Greek Revival examples and twentieth-century bungalows. Some modern intrusions, such as mobile homes and 1960s commercial buildings, are a minority. The district was recognized as a record of the town's prosperity in the later nineteenth century. Local preservation work, including restoration of the opera house, has been under way since the 1960s.