The Llano County Courthouse sits on the historic square of Llano, TX, a small city in the Hill Country of central Texas. Constructed in 1893, the courthouse was designed by architects A.O. Watson and Jacob Laramour in Romanesque Revival style. The exterior is made of sandstone, marble and granite. The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Place (NRHP) in 1977. The courthouse shares this designation with a jail, erected in 1895 and located a few blocks away.
Tags: Llano Texas TX Llano County Llano County Courthouse Architect A.O. Watson Jacob Laramour Architectural Style Romanesque Revival Building Materials Sandstone Marble Granite National Register of Historic Places NRHP Ref# 77001459
© All Rights Reserved
The Llano County Courthouse sits on the historic square of Llano, TX, a small city in the Hill Country of central Texas. Constructed in 1893, the courthouse was designed by architects A.O. Watson and Jacob Laramour in Romanesque Revival style. The exterior is made of sandstone, marble and granite. The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Place (NRHP) in 1977. The courthouse shares this designation with a jail, erected in 1895 and located a few blocks away.
Tags: Llano Texas TX Llano County Llano County Courthouse Architect A.O. Watson Jacob Laramour Architectural Style Romanesque Revival Building Materials Sandstone Marble Granite National Register of Historic Places NRHP Ref# 77001459
© All Rights Reserved
The Llano County Courthouse sits on the historic square of Llano, TX, a small city in the Hill Country of central Texas. Constructed in 1893, the courthouse was designed by architects A.O. Watson and Jacob Laramour in Romanesque Revival style. The exterior is made of sandstone, marble and granite. The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Place (NRHP) in 1977. The courthouse shares this designation with a jail, erected in 1895 and located a few blocks away.
Tags: Llano Texas TX Llano County Llano County Courthouse Architect A.O. Watson Jacob Laramour Architectural Style Romanesque Revival Building Materials Sandstone Marble Granite National Register of Historic Places NRHP Ref# 77001459
Visible from the historic Inks Bridge spanning the Llano River, the Llano Red Top Jail is an imposing Romanesque Revival structure. During the iron ore boom town era of the 1890s, the Red Top with its 4-story gallows tower became a constant reminder to outlaws that they should keep their guns at home. Due to its red roof, prisoners told people that they “stayed at the Red Top last night”.
The Llano County Jail was designed by F.W. and W.S. Hull, and built in 1895 by the Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company of St. Louis, Missouri. The granite exterior was quarried locally and the iron bars for the cells and windows were transported by rail from St. Louis and were assembled on site. The ground level was used solely for the jail office and living accommodations for the sheriff and his family. Prisoner cells were on the second and third floors, and the central tower housed the gallows.
Although the Llano County Courthouse and Jail were erected separately and are blocks apart, the two buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 as one entry. The jail saw use all the way until 1982, when it was condemned for not meeting the state’s minimum prisoner housing standards. A new jailhouse for the county was completed in 2002.
The City of Llano purchased the jail from the County in 2005 to help with the restoration of the Llano County Courthouse. In 2015, the Friends of the Llano Red Top Jail took possession of the site from the city of Llano. Public tours of the jail are not currently available as renovations finish to mitigate some structural concerns. The end goal is for the Red Top to be a museum.
The deer statue outside the jail pays homage to what Llano is best known for – hunting. Indeed, Llano has been proclaimed as the "Deer Capital of Texas."
Llano is located approximately 75 miles northwest of Austin. The population of Llano County in 2010 was 19,301. The estimated population in 2019 of the City of Llano was 3,497.
Tags: Llano City of Llano Llano County Central Texas Texas TX Former Historic Llano County Jail Red Top Jail Red Top Architecture Architectural Style Romanesque Revival Architect F.W. Hull W.S. Hull Construction Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company Exterior Granite Friends of the Llano Red Top Jail National Register of Historic Places NRHP Reference # 77001459 Canon EOS 5D Mark IV