The La Salle County courthouse is lisrted on the US National Register of Historic Places in its own right, but is also a contributing building to the Cotulla Downtown Historic District in Cotulla TX.
From the Nomination Form: (
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The Cotulla Downtown Historic District includes 33 total resources in central Cotulla, Texas. Within the district
are railroad tracks, brick 1-part and 2-part commercial buildings facing the railroad tracks on Front Street, the
Art Deco La Salle County Courthouse, the town plaza, and several additional historic commercial buildings with
high level of integrity. The district is approximately 17 acres in area and lies roughly between Kerr and Market
Streets, and Tilden and Carrizo Streets. Its boundary is slightly irregular in order to include the highest
concentration of historic resources. Of the 33 total resources, 21 are considered contributing. Of the eleven
noncontributing resources, seven date to the historic period of 1881 to 1952 but have poor integrity; the
remaining three postdate the period of significance.
. . .
La Salle County Courthouse (Resource 27)
1931
Contributing Building
The La Salle County Courthouse is a 1931 civic building in the Art Deco style, designed by architect Henry T.
Phelps. It is located in the center of a courthouse square that occupies the entire city block between North and
South Center Streets, and Kerr and Stewart Streets. The building faces east, toward the historic commercial
district and railroad tracks. The block immediately east of the courthouse square is the Cotulla Town Plaza,
which frames the courthouse building and acts as a gateway. Center Street, which runs on an east-west axis
through the center of town, splits into two as it passes by the plaza and the courthouse square. The courthouse
square is a flat, slightly elevated grassy expanse dotted with deciduous trees and surrounded by a concrete
sidewalk. A short concrete and stone staircase at Stewart Street leads to the building’s main entrance walkway.
The building is built of buff-colored brick and has cream-colored stone architectural details. The building has a
rectangular footprint and is comprised of a central three-story volume and two three-story flanking wings whose
building plane is behind that of the central volume. A fourth story, which contains a jail, is a stuccoed volume
that is set back from the edge of the building, such that only the top of it is visible from ground level. The
courthouse’s front, or east, façade is symmetrical and has 11 bays. Wide brick pilasters divide the bays. The
entrance is located in the central bay, accessed by another broad concrete and stone stairway. The single entry
door is flanked by glass sidelights and topped by a wide transom. Above the door is a tall casement window.
These are both surrounded by telescoped Art Deco archivolts and topped with a frieze featuring stylized vegetal
and scroll forms and an eagle with its wings spread wide. At the top of this central bay is a geometric detail of a
circle within an octagon within a square. The two flanking bays of the central entry volume each contain two
tall casement windows.
Each of the two flanking wings contain four bays, with casement windows of diminishing height—tall windows
on the ground floor, shorter windows on the second floor, and still shorter windows on the third floor. This
diminishing-size window pattern continues on the north and south five-bay elevations. On the first and second
floor of both side elevations’ central bays is the same stylized Art Deco door- and window-surrounds found on
the front façade. The rear elevation is virtually a mirror-image of the front.
The building’s Art Deco details repeat around the entire building. A wide frieze that surrounds the building
features a chevron design with terra cotta stylized vegetal motifs within the triangles. The facades’ brick
pilasters extend to parapet level, interrupting the frieze. Atop each brick pilaster is a stair-stepped stone cap.
Below this is an inset panel with the same vegetal motifs found in the frieze. Above every first floor windows is
a rectangular stone spandrel featuring a geometric shape, more terra cotta floral motifs and a shield reading “LS”
for La Salle County."