DeLeon Plaza still shows Victoria's old civic plan

DeLeon Plaza carries a town plan nearly two centuries old. Martin de Leon laid out Guadalupe Victoria with public squares in 1824, and Victoria County put a courthouse on one of them in 1849. The square has been a civic center since Victoria was still a young settlement.

The courthouse standing there now came out of an 1891 design competition. J. Riely Gordon and D. E. Laub won, but county commissioners dismissed Gordon during construction in 1892. Contractors finished the Romanesque Revival building, and the county accepted it on January 1, 1893. When Victoria needed more room in 1961, residents petitioned to save the old courthouse. Additional facilities went on the square's northeast corner, and the historic building was later restored.

The plaza kept its everyday life, too. Musicians used a platform there by the early 1870s. In 1899, Wagner's Brass Band asked the city to roof and rebuild it, continuing the bandstand tradition behind today's gazebo. Twelve electric lights followed in 1923. Courthouse stone, shade trees, music, and city gatherings still share the same block at 101 N. Main Street.