The Bastrop County Courthouse was built in 1883 in Renaissance Revival design after the previous courthouse burned that same year. The architect was Frederick E. Ruffini and the total cost to build the structure was $33,000.
National Register Text
| The Bastrop County Courthouse is
a three-story, stuccoed brick, Neo-classical Revival structure with a
copper-domed clock tower in the center of a flat roof. Designed by J. W.
Preston and Sons and reviewed by F. E. Ruffini, the courthouse was built in
1883-1884 and utilized the traditional cross-corridor plan of Victorian
courthouse design.
The exterior reflects the interior spaces by a series of projecting pavilions on each facade. The four sides are similar in massing, consisting of a five-part composition: a central projecting entrance pavilion, flanked by two recessed sections, and projecting corner pavilions. Every facade has a raised parapet above a heavy copper cornice, with stepped parapets over the projecting pavilions. The top two stories are treated as a piano nobile divided from the first story by a wide stringcourse. The north facade is identified as the main entrance. A one-story porch with balustrade, supported by paneled piers and Doric columns in antis, shelters the double doors on the first floor. Similar entrances on the east and west facades have double doors providing access to the balcony above. Three types of window heads are employed in the composition. Round-arched hood molds with keystones are used for the bottom story in the corner pavilions and in the upper story windows of the east and west entrance pavilions. Stilted transverse-arched hood molds with keystones are incorporated in the first floor windows in the recessed sections and in the upper story windows in the corner pavilions. Flat arches without keystones are used for the upper story windows in the recessed portion to each side of the central pavilions. Originally, before the 1924 effort to modernize when many of the decorative architectural features were trimmed from the courthouse, the building was not stuccoed. The dome, with windowed room beneath, had exterior galleries and balustrades. Four entrances were enriched with pedimented porticos, stone steps, cast-iron balustrade, and cast-iron columns with foliated Corinthian capitals. The dentiled cornice was of galvanized iron, and the corner pavilions were topped by a balustrade embellished with urns. No plaster was used in the interior, as a wood paneled ceiling, walnut staircase, and unusually high wainscoting were incorporated. Encaustic tile, bronze hardware, and double thickness glass were used throughout. |