see McMullen County Courthouse
see McMullen County Courthouse – Revisited
Next, we drove to Tilden, seat of McMullen county. Neither one of us had ever been there. The drive was brilliant, again, with all the flowers. South of Jourdanton, the mesquite were more noticeably in bloom, as were the cactus. Mixed with all kinds of flowers, this was the perfect time to drive this lonely stretch of Texas highway.
Once we got to Tilden, it was hard to miss the courthouse. This town is small! In fact, according to the map we were using, the population is 500. I am not sure where they live though. The courthouse was very unimpressive. But then, this is a small town, in a sparsely populated county that is most likely one of the poorer counties in Texas. The courthouse had little style. It did have a few white columns by each door and it had rounded gables – neither of which added much to the plain yellow brick structure. It did have an interesting rock fence. The fence looked like something you might see around an older ranch house. This probably reflects the fact that this is ranch country with plenty of rock to use for building.
We also located on the same square, the old jailhouse. This was probably more interesting. It was made of the ubiquitous rock and quite small (maybe two rooms). There was also an old café among the few buildings around the square. Like the café, most of the buildings looked unoccupied.