The Jeff Davis County Courthouse is located in the town of Fort Davis, the seat of Jeff Davis County in the U.S. state of Texas. The courthouse was constructed between 1910-1911 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. The Texas Historical Commission (THC) has also designated the building as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark since 2000 and, along with the surrounding courthouse square, as a State Antiquities Landmark since 2003. The surrounding county and county seat, along with the nearby historic frontier fort at Fort Davis National Historic Site, are named after Jefferson Davis, who served as U.S. war secretary at the time of the establishment of the fort and the town, and who would later become president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
The courthouse is located in the town's traditionally commercial district and holds the distinction of having the highest elevation of any of the state's courthouses due to Fort Davis' altitude in the state's western Davis Mountains. The building was constructed in a Classic Revival style with recessed columned porticoes on two sides with a Beaux-Arts clock tower atop. The ground floor primarily hosts county offices while the second floor is dominated by the district courtroom.
A previous facility located on the same square from 1880 to 1911 served as the original courthouse for both Jeff Davis County and also for Presidio County from which Jeff Davis County was partitioned and of which Fort Davis also formerly served as the county seat. The older courthouse was an adobe facility that required constant maintenance and never held sufficient space to serve the needs of either county government.
The current building has also suffered over its history with poor construction requiring constant repair as well as the need for upgrades to modern infrastructure and technical standards. The courthouse underwent major renovations in the 1950s, many of which disrespected the building's original architectural design, and again in this century with THC funding that further modernized the structure while rectifying many of the previous renovation's design deficiencies bringing the building closer to its original glory. The courthouse grounds are planted mostly with native species, and continues to serve as a focal point for holiday celebrations and community observations.
Description
The courthouse is located in the center of Fort Davis' courthouse square on a block bounded by Court Avenue to the north, South State Street to the east, Woodward Avenue to the south, and South Front Street on the west. State St., along the square's eastern boundary, is the town's main thoroughfare conveying both State Highway 17 (SH 17) and SH 118 which merge just south of the square's southeastern corner at Woodward Ave. The building's official address is 100 Court Avenue along the northern face of the courthouse.
The two-story Classic Revival edifice features an exterior with alternating layers of concrete and rusticated pink native stone. Six doric columns enclose recessed pedimented porticoes on each of the northern and southern faces of the building. From the building's slab-on-grade foundation to the sill of the first-story windows is a base composed of a poured-in-place water table. Above that is the layered concrete and volcanic stone exterior walls most of which is slightly recessed from concrete block quoins. Above the second story windows begins a painted, decorative sheet metal entablature capped with a prominent cornice. Above the central portion of each of the building's four sides is a wood-framed, low-pitched, cross-gabled roof with pediments at each end covered with asphalt shingles. The four corner sections have low-pitched roofs with external gutters.
Atop the structure is a Beaux-Arts octagonal clock tower enclosing a Seth Thomas timepiece. This cupola, including its dome and rectangular base, are covered in painted, decorative sheet metal. A U.S. Geological Survey benchmark at the east side of the courthouse indicates an elevation of at that location, while the building itself is the highest courthouse in Texas at . THC documentation describes the building as resembling a smaller version of the Mason County Courthouse in Mason. In addition to the building, a cylindrical concrete block cistern constructed around 1900 located on the southwest corner of the courthouse square is included as a contributing structure to the site's National Register designation.