VICTORIA
By Ciara McCarthy/cmccarthy@vicad.com
The J.D. Mitchell House, 301 S. Bridge St., was first built in 1893. It was restored and today is used as office space.
FIND THE HISTORY HIDDEN IN MODERN-DAY VICTORIA BY CIARA MCCARTHY cmccarthy@vicad.com
As one of the oldest cities and counties in Texas, Victoria has its fair share of historic buildings and homes. Even as Victoria has developed into a 21st century city, preservationists and other local leaders have worked to maintain some of the most important and beautiful homes and buildings. Much of that work has been led by the nonprofit Victoria Preservation Inc., which informs and educates the public about the city’s legacy while protecting the area’s rich history. For those new to Victoria or new to its history, the best 14
DISCOVER 2018
place to learn about it is by driving or walking through the historic sites that are still around today. The best spot to begin, said Victoria Preservation’s executive director, Jeff Wright, is the courthouse square, the heart of today’s downtown, which still has the same basic setup as when Victoria was first formed as a city. Like most county courthouses in South Texas, the Victoria County Courthouse is a gem of early architecture in the city, Wright said. The courthouse was first built in 1892 and is considered a masterpiece of Romanesque Revival design. The limestone building, which was designed
by Texas architect J. Riely Gordon, was restored and rededicated in 2001. Both the original 1892 courthouse and the neighboring modern courthouse built in 1967 also offer some of the best historical artwork you can find in Victoria, Wright said. Both are public buildings and open to anyone who wants to take a look inside during business hours. The next stop on your tour is just outside: DeLeon Plaza. The public space has multiple historic artifacts if you simply know the right place to look, Wright says. “That city block (of DeLeon Plaza) along with the courthouse block have both served
the same purpose since the town’s founding,” Wright said about the history still embedded in downtown Victoria. The antique lamp posts in the plaza are all inscribed with names, and if you look closely, you can piece together a who’s who of early Victoria, Wright said. Under the modern-day bandstand is the former location of the standpipe, which is where groundwater from the Guadalupe River was pumped (from the location of the modern-day PumpHouse restaurant) to the center of town to provide city residents with water. DeLeon Plaza is also home to the Six Flags Monument,
