return to Brazoria County Courthouse
When visiting the Brazoria County Courthouses one of the things that strikes you immediately is how the county has preserved the 3 different courthouses without resorting to tearing down and replacing. The 1897 courthouse is now the county museum. When built, it looked much different. But, like so many other courthouses in Texas, the tower came down. Probably the reason for so many courthouses losing their towers was structural and weather related. The towers were generally massive, heavy and a great target for wind storms of various kinds.
Visiting the museum, we were able to meet two of the curators. We got some additional, historical pictures, which I’ve scanned and included. Perhaps one of the most interesting stories they shared was of the 1894 courthouse, which was located in Brazoria. The county seat was moved to Angleton a few years later. Evidently, the Brazoria folks felt that if they built a new courthouse, it would force the county seat to remain in Brazoria. So they went about building it in a very quick manner – meaning many corners were cut. The end result was a massive Romanesque Revival beauty, that did not have the foundation to support the structure. As a result, the building was deemed unsafe and soon after the county seat moved to Angleton. Following are some printouts we were able to get from the museum of previous courthouses:
