Bandera County

The Bandera County courthouse was built in Renaissance Revival Style of limestone in 1890. B.F. Trester designed the structure that was built by Ed Braden & Sons for $19,914. Trester died before the courthouse was finished so the county had architect E. Huffmeyer complete the job.

National Register Text

The three-story rusticated cut limestone courthouse built in 1890-91 with a central clock tower, is the focal point of the Bandera public square, and the dominating architectural feature of the town. The Second Renaissance Revival-style structure was built of locally quarried white limestone. The rusticated stone building is bonded in smooth- cut limestone at water table and belt course, lintels and fluted pilasters. Originally massed in an ABA rhythm on all four facades, a one-story stone office addition to the east facade in 1966 has disturbed the continuity of that facade. The north and south facades consist of a three-story central projecting pavilion flanked by two-story wings. The central portico is supported by paired classical columns and crowned by a balustraded balcony above at the second story level. The east and west facades, are less prominent but feature cut stone voussoirs at the central pavilion's second level. The eaves are bracketed on the east and west pavilions, with a dentil cornice on the flanking two-story portions. The hipped and gabled roof and the domed cupola are covered with standing-seam metal. Four stone chimneys pierce the central pavilions of the east and west facades. Additional alterations to the structure consist of aluminum window replacement in 1966 and interior renovation. The building is generally in excellent condition, except for a need to strengthen the cupola at the present time. A one-story, stuccoed block building separated from the courthouse, but on the public square was built to the north (rear) of the courthouse in 1938.

The present courthouse was designed by a prolific San Antonio architect, B.F. Trester, Jr. In a two-year period, Trester also designed the Uvalde County Courthouse, a two- story stone school in Kerrville, Methodist Female Seminary in San Antonio, a two-story brick store in Beeville, and the Uvalde Opera House (N.R. 1978) before his death in March of 1891. Builders for the courthouse were Ed Braden and Sons, with Frankel and Hayden shown as supervising architects. Apparently a design for the courthouse was submitted by Alfred Giles and rejected. A one-story jail was built on the square behind the courthouse in 1938, and a one-story limestone office addition was built to the east in 1966 when the courthouse was remodeled and the windows were replaced. Even with these changes, the character and mass of the building are important to the scale of the tiny town (present population 941).