This was our 204th Courthouse in Texas to visit. That means we are at 80.3% of our goal with 19.7% left to go.

When Nueces County was officially organized in 1846, cut from San Patricio County, it stretched south of Bexar County, west to the Rio Grande and east to the Gulf of Mexico. The county seat of Corpus Christi was founded by Henry Lawrence Kinney (namesake of Kinney County) when he established a trading post in the area in 1839. County officials had been meeting in each others homes until the first courthouse was planned in 1852. A 2-story building of shellcrete, a cross between adobe and concrete, was designed by surveyor Felix von Blucher. Construction began in 1853 under contractor J. B. McGowan on three lots sold to the county by Henry Kinney. Construction progressed slowly and the contractor was replaced by James McMartin in 1854. The building was completed in 1856 and cost the county $4,000. By 1875, the county had outgrown this courthouse and a second one was constructed on the north side of the first one. The 1875 courthouse was two stories and built in a Greek Revival & Italianate style with concrete blocks and a wooden portico and staircase at a cost of $15,000. This courthouse was referred to as the “Hollub Courthouse” after the engineer who designed it. The first courthouse continued to be used as office space for county officials and as a jury room. In 1892, a two-story brick jail, designed by J. Riely Gordon and Laub, was built to the south of the 1853 and 1875 courthouses.

The county’s continued growth led to the building of a third courthouse to be built on the same lots as the earlier courthouses and 1892 jail, which were demolished. Completed in 1914 at a cost of $250,000, the third Nueces County courthouse was designed by Harvey L. Page, a Washington, D.C. born architect who relocated to San Antonio around 1900. The Classical Revival style T-shaped structure has a six story projecting entrance on the east side with four story wings on the north and south sides. It was built of stone with a brick veneer and originally had a red tile roof. The courthouse also contains terra cotta trim and statuary. The top two stories of the central section contained the county jail which was used until 1977. A six story addition built in the early 1930s, extending from the west side, was built with the same materials and gave the building a cruciform shape. A 1960s addition on the northeast corner and later additions in the 1970s have since been demolished. In 1972, plans were being made to construct a new courthouse and jail in the downtown area southwest of the 1914 courthouse. Groundbreaking began in 1974 and the fourth courthouse was completed in 1977. The 1914 courthouse was abandoned at that time and has sat vacant since then. A grant from the Texas Historical Commission in 2003 enabled the county to restore the exterior of the south wing of the 1914 courthouse, which was completed in 2006, but the rest of the building remains in a deteriorated state.

According to an article from the Corpus Christi Caller-Times dated August 23, 2011, an engineering study found the 1914 courthouse to be “structurally unsound and in danger of collapse.” This led the Nueces County Judge and Commissioners to pass a resolution to demolish the building. When the county accepted grant money from the Texas Historical Commission for restoration, it agreed to protect the building from demolition until at least 2027, but the Nueces County Judge and Commissioners is now trying to have that agreement with the Texas Historical Commission rescinded so it can proceed with the demolition of the building.