La Grange: Fayette County Courthouse Square National Historic District

Three storey courthouse with upper floor balconies and a central clock tower

Fayette County Courthouse

Small house using fachwerk construction, half timbering and brick, with a front porch

John C. Stiehl House (Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives)

Historic commercial buildings

La Grange’s courthouse square. (TXDOT)

Aerial view of large group of people in front of storefronts and horses and carts scattered over the square and unpaved road

Commerce on the square, ca. late 1800s.

Storefront sidewalk with signs along overhang saying Prause Meat Market, Insurance, and Barber Shop

Prause Market on Courthouse Square.

Men in a buggy pulled by donkeys in front of a courthouse

Men in buggy pulled by donkeys in front of courthouse, ca. 1915-1920. (UTSA Special Collections Library)

Crowds of people lining a street viewing a parade with a marching band and floats pulled by horses

German-American Day parade, Main and Travis Sts., ca 1900-1910, (UTSA Special Collections Library)

Horse-drawn floats and a marching band lined up for a parade

German-American Day parade, ca 1900-1910, Note hotel and boarding house along street. (UTSA Special Collections Library)

Two men behind a bar that is decorated with a metal arch and crepe paper

Schaefer Saloon, Washington and Colorado Sts., 1914. (UTSA Special Collections Library)

Exploring the courthouse square, you’ll see LaGrange’s fourth and final courthouse – a new building when Arnold Prause moved to town. Prause opened Prause Meat Market, which has been selling fine meats for over a hundred years, and at its current since 1953. Fourth-generation family owned and operated, the Prauses still take pride in butchering their meat in-house, and pit-smoke beef in the true Texas barbecue tradition. 

Dedicated in 2012 to 21 men and women who helped establish Fayette County, the peaceful Founders Park tells their stories in informational plaques around the park’s perimeter.

John Stiehl’s fachwerk cottage, built in the 1850s, still stands - four blocks from the La Grange square. It’s the legacy of an influential German-Texan… who became Fayette County’s top legal mind.

Fayette County Courthouse Square National Historic District

  • Bounded by Main, Lafayette, Franklin, Colorado, Jefferson, Washington, and Crockett Sts., La Grange, TX
  • 979-968-3017
  • Visit Website
  • National Register of Historic Places
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