Donley County Courthouse
Erected 1890
"The Jewel of the Plains"

The Donley County Courthouse in Clarendon was designed by C. H. Bulger and Isaac Hamilton Rapp of Trinidad, Colorado.  It was built by the Troutman Brothers of Trinidad, Colorado, whose bid was $28,500.  County offices moved into the building in 1891.  It is the oldest operating Courthouse in the Panhandle.

Its architectural style, described as late Victorian Romanesque Revival, is unique in that all four elevations of the building are totally different.  It is unlike any other courthouse in the State of Texas.

The courtroom on the second floor has been continually in use since the building was built.  The trial for murder and sentencing of G. R. Miller, whose hanging was the last legal hanging in the Panhandle of Texas, was conducted there in 1909.  He was hung from a newly built scaffold in Clarendon, approximately one mile north of the site of the old depot.

The Courthouse has just completed an extensive restoration
partially funded by the Texas Historical Commission.  The building is open for self-guided tours Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Visitors are certainly welcome!