Fayette County Courthouse and Jail

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

From the record

“The Fayette County Courthouse and the Fayette County Jail are two historic buildings in La Grange, Texas. The courthouse was designed by James Riely Gordon and built in 1891 by Martin, Byrne and Johnston.”
Wikipedia article Fayette County Courthouse and Jail, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 24 National Register listings published here for Fayette County · listed in 1975 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. Courthouse Sq. and 104 Main St., La Grange, 78945
When was it listed? January 1975
Category. building
Census division. La Grange
Architectural style. Gothic Revival
Architect. John Andrewartha, James Riely Gordon
National Register reference number. 75001973 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

32 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 32 fires within 5 miles of Fayette County Courthouse and Jail between 1993 and 2020, burning about 340 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	19
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	8
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2017	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	PINEY CREEK RD
7 September 1993	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named
28 September 1993	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named
24 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	CENTRAL TX - 26
23 September 2005	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	CENTRAL TX - 24
23 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	150 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	CENTRAL TX - 25
22 September 2005	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	CENTRAL TX - 21
21 September 2005	Debris and open burning	10 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	CENTRAL TX - 20

Every fire recorded in Fayette County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Fayette County Courthouse and Jail: 2 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Halsted Mine	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Flint, Gravel
La Grange Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Lagrange Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer	Gravel, Sand
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Fayette County

Storms near this property

39 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names La Grange, the town this property stands in, in 39 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 14 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 10 flash flood, 3 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	$80,000	Severe thunderstorm winds were reported by the Fayette County Sheriff's Department to have blown down trees and power lines in the LaGrange area.
April 2023	Hail	La Grange	$50,000	A thunderstorm produced hail up to two inches in diameter in La Grange. The hail dented vehicles in the area.
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	$50,000	Severe thunderstorm winds knocked over trees and blew down power lines in the LaGrange area.
June 2007	Flash Flood	La Grange	$30,000	Up to 3 inches of rain was produced by showers and thunderstorms in less than one hour between Plum and LaGrange. As a result of the heavy rainfall, FM609, FM154 were closed through the late night and into the early morning.
December 2002	Tornado (F0)	La Grange	$20,000	The tornado, as surveyed by the Fayette County Emergency Manager, touched down along East Radhost School Road, approximately 6 miles south of LaGrange at 1735 CST and moved for three-fourths of a mile toward the northeast. It was estimated at 50 yards wide and damaged a 20 foot by 20 foot carport and a 15 foot by 20 foot wooden building before dissipating near 1740CST. The tornado was rated F0 on the Fujita Scale.
March 1995	Tornado (F0)	La Grange	$20,000	A small tornado struck an outbuilding and moved mobile homes off their pads a it struck briefly near La Grange. The tornado moved southeastward, doing minor roof damage and knocking over some street signs before lifting up and disappearing. It picked up a two-by-four and propelled it through a window in the unused bedroom of a home, but caused no injuries. Persons near the path of the tornado reported hearing a "roaring sound."
April 1998	Hail	La Grange	$10,000	no account filed
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	$5,000	A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 70 mph that knocked down multiple trees in La Grange.
May 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	$5,000	no account filed
April 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	$1,000	Multiple large trees were downed blocking a roadway in the city of La Grange. Special equipment was required in order to move the trees off the road.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	$500	A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 60 mph that blew down some three inch diameter tree limbs in LaGrange.
May 2025	Hail	La Grange	-	A thunderstorm produced dime to quarter size hail in La Grange.
April 2023	Hail	La Grange	-	A thunderstorm produced ping pong ball size hail in La Grange.
May 2023	Hail	La Grange	-	A thunderstorm produced nickel to quarter size hail in La Grange.
May 2023	Flash Flood	La Grange	-	Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. A video on social media showed water flowing over a low water crossing on Guenther Rd. at Lane Pool Creek south of La Grange.
May 2021	Flash Flood	La Grange	-	Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. The Fayette County Sheriff reported five water rescues and multiple roads closed around the county.
April 2016	Flash Flood	La Grange	-	Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding closing Hwy 71 in several locations east of La Grange. Swift water rescues were performed and cars were under water.
April 2016	Flash Flood	La Grange	-	Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding closing W. Travis St. at Hwy 77.
April 2015	Hail	La Grange	-	Quarter size hail was reported along highway 77 north of the city of La Grange.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	-	A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 50 knots which knocked down some large tree limbs in La Grange.
May 2011	Hail	La Grange	-	A thunderstorm produced hail from pea to quarter size.
May 2010	Flash Flood	La Grange	-	Thunderstorms produced heavy rain which flooded and closed numerous roads east of FM237 and FM71.
February 2008	Hail	La Grange	-	The general public reported quarter size hail two miles south of La Grange.
November 2007	Flash Flood	La Grange	-	Thunderstorms moved slowly across southern Fayette County during the evening of November 17 producing very heavy rainfall. Radar estimates showed in excess of 4 inches of rain from 6 PM until midnight and CoCoRAHS observer La Grange 10.2NW reported 7.96 inches in 24 hours ending at 8 AM on November 18. The heavy rain led to flash flooding which closed Highway 77 from La Grange to Schulenburg due to water covering the road.
March 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	-	Trees were blown down from just northeast of LaGrange to Round Top by high winds from thunderstorms. The information was obtained from a damage survey conducted by a Texas DPS Regional Liaison Officer.
May 2007	Flash Flood	La Grange	-	Scattered showers and thunderstorms produced general 1 to 3 inch rain amounts in southern Fayette County, with up to 4 inches falling near Engle. Flash flooding closed many of the roads in the southern half of the county, including FM609 and FM154.
May 2007	Flood	La Grange	-	The Colorado River at LaGrange crested at 30.14 ft at 1315 CST on May 28, where flood stage is 26 ft.
November 2007	Flash Flood	La Grange	-	During the morning of November 18 thunderstorms moved over northern parts of Fayette County and produced 3 to 3.5 inches of rain after the county had seen over 4 inches overnight (CoCoRAHS observer La Grange 10.2NW reported 7.96 inches in 24 hours ending at 8 AM). Runoff from this additional rain led to flash flooding. Farm to market road 155 south of La Grange was closed due to water over the road.
September 2006	Flash Flood	La Grange	-	Thunderstorms formed in the late afternoon over the western portions of Fayette County and eastern portions of Bastrop County, producing general 2-3 inch totals. Up to 4 inches fell between LaGrange and Warda, causing flash flooding that closed FM609 and FM153.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	-	The Fayette County Sheriff's Department reported numerous trees blown down between LaGrange and Round Top.
November 2004	Tornado (F0)	La Grange	-	The Fayette County Sheriff's Department reported that a small tornado had touched down very briefly in LaGrange and had knocked over a small structure on Reynolds St. Minor damage was also reported to cars and windows of buildings in the area. The tornado remained on the ground for approximately one quarter mile, then lifted and dissipated. It was rated F0 on the Fujita Scale.
May 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	-	Winds damaged 10 roofs, knocked over numerous trees and blew out several transformers.
May 2011	Hail	La Grange	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	La Grange	-	no account filed
November 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grange	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	La Grange	-	no account filed
March 2000	Hail	La Grange	-	no account filed
May 2000	Hail	La Grange	-	no account filed
November 2000	Hail	La Grange	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Fayette County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Fayette County Courthouse Square Historic District	under 500 feet	2001
St. James Episcopal Church	0.4 miles	1976
State Highway 71 Bridge at the Colorado River	0.4 miles	1996
Nathaniel W. Faison House	0.5 miles	2010
State Highway 71 Bridge at the Colorado River	0.7 miles	1996
Mier Expedition and Dawson's Men Monument and Tomb	1.1 miles	2019

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 75001973 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Fayette County	All 24 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.