Year Built: 1893
Architect: A. O. Watson and Jacob Larmour
The Llano County Courthouse is located in Llano, Texas.
The 1892 courthouse, designed by the firm of A. 0. Watson, replaced a 1884 courthouse that was destroyed by fire. The ground floor is divided into four quadrants containing offices by corridors passing through the center of the building in the north-south and east-west directions. The large two-story courtroom along with four small rooms used by jurors, etc. occupies the second floor .
The building was restored in 2002. At that time the tower was returned to its original 1892 design. “The courthouse massing with a tower located on a corner rather than rising from the center is unusual in Texas and apparently had its origins in circumstances of site planning and in changes requested by the county commissioners during the course of planning . Evidently because the public square slopes downward appreciably to the northwest, it originally had been specified that the edifice be located on the southwest corner of the square. As a result of this requirement and the dictates of good composition, the architects placed the tower in an offset position on the southwest corner with entrances only on the south and west. Later the commissioners ordered the location moved to the center of the square and porticoes with designs matching those on the south and west were added to the north and east facades. Then the tower was moved to the northeast corner—the location of the cornerstone.” The National Register nomination file – 1977
