Cleburne's Courthouse Rose From the Ashes of a 1912 Fire

On April 15, 1912, the old Second Empire courthouse on Cleburne's square burned, and Johnson County had to start over. Commissioners turned to the Dallas firm of Lang and Witchell, whose architects leaned toward a flatter, more modern Prairie-and-Classical look than the towered Victorian piles most Texas counties were still putting up. The building they designed (the county's sixth courthouse) was accepted by the commissioners court on November 28, 1913, and it's still the one in use today.

By the early 2000s the place was tired, so the county closed it from 2005 to 2008 for a top-to-bottom restoration. Crews brought back the historic wall-paint scheme, returned the district courtroom to its original full height, and threaded in modern wiring, fire protection, and accessibility without wrecking the old corridors and stairwells.

It still works as a courthouse, which is part of what makes the square worth a slow walk. County offices, the district courts, and a small county museum all share the building, so the everyday business of Johnson County happens inside a hundred-year-old room someone took real care to save.