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Jefferson County Courthouse (Texas)

building in Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ6175424 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Jefferson County Courthouse in Beaumont, Texas is one of the tallest courthouses in the state, and is an excellent example of Art Deco architecture. Built in 1931, it is the fourth courthouse built in Jefferson County. It was designed by Fred Stone and Augustin Babin, and is thirteen stories high. In 1981, an annex was added to the west side of the courthouse.

History

The county has had four courthouses. The first building built by the county was a simple wood structure built to serve as the county jail. The second courthouse was built in 1854 and was a simple two story square structure. A third courthouse, a three-story red brick building designed by E.T. Heiner, was built in 1893. By the late 1920s Beaumont had grown so much that the courthouse was inadequate to meet the needs of the people, and by early 1931 the present brick structure was completed. The architects were Fred C. Stone & A. Babin; the sculptor of the frieze panels and other architectural sculpture was Beaumont sculptor Matchett Herring Coe.

Editorial summary

“Jefferson County Courthouse (Texas)” enters the record as building in Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jefferson, County and Courthouse can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1931, 1981, 1854, 1893—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Jefferson, County and Courthouse.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Jefferson County Courthouse (Texas)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Jefferson, County and Courthouse provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6175424. Authority coordinates are 30.078, -94.093. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931, 1981, 1854 and 1893.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jefferson County Courthouse (Texas)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jefferson County Courthouse (Texas) primary sources, Jefferson County Courthouse (Texas) archive and Jefferson research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jefferson County Courthouse (Texas)”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Jefferson County Courthouse (Texas)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.