Fayette County Courthouse - La Grange, TX - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

"The Fayette County courthouse is a three-story masonry Romanesque Revival structure with a tall clock tower rising over the main entrance. Designed by J. Riely Gordon, the courthouse was built in 1890-91 and was a unique departure from the traditional cross corridor plan of Victorian courthouse designs. Inspired by a desire to develop good lighting and a more satisfactory arrangement for natural ventilation of interior spaces, Gordon arranged all the offices and the courtroom around a 30-foot square central courtyard. Numerous doors opened into this space, providing for cool breezes through the building. On the second and third floors, a two-story courtroom encompassed the west side. In the 1940's, due to a need for additional space, the open court was converted into a vault and offices."

"Texas' most abundant building material—stone—was used to create rich detail in texture and color. The exterior walls displayed Belton white limestone and Muldoon blue sandstone in a polychrome technique. The two stones produce a checkerboard effect in the gables, while the arches are richly expressed by alternating the voussoirs with the two different stones. Red Pecos sandstone emphasized the horizontal stringcourses and pink Burnet granite richly accent the columns and steps. The colonettes display acanthus-leaf capitals and some of the stonework displays arabesque detail. Located at the base of the clock tower is a large stone slab on which an American eagle is carved. At each end of the dentil work above the stone slab are the likenesses of griffins. Between the windows the pressed tin swag and patera motifs in the spandrels further embellish the building."