One limestone courthouse. Five national titles. This is why Granbury, Texas is in a class of its own

Granbury’s courthouse square keeps earning the crown

About 35 miles southwest of Fort Worth, a small Texas town called Granbury keeps winning the same national award over and over.

USA Today named it Best Historic Small Town in America in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2025 and 2026, the only town in the country to win three years in a row and five times total.

More than 40 historic landmarks line the streets around a limestone courthouse that has stood since 1891.

There’s a lot packed into a few square blocks, and the story of how it all got saved is worth knowing before you go.

Founded in 1866, built to last

Two brothers, J. and J.H. Nutt, donated 40 acres of riverfront land in 1866 to form the townsite.

That same year, Hood County was carved out of Johnson and Erath counties, and Granbury became the county seat after three contested elections.

The town grew as a trading center, and the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway eventually made it an end-of-the-line stop, which brought more business and more people.

Today, 39 of those original 19th-century buildings still stand, many of them right on the courthouse square.

The limestone courthouse at the center of it all

The Hood County Courthouse went up between 1890 and 1891, built from local Brazos limestone in a French Second Empire style with a three-story clock tower rising above the square. Architect W.C. Dodson designed it.

It’s the fifth courthouse to stand on that spot, replacing a one-room log cabin that served as the first in 1867.

In 2013, the Texas Downtown Association gave it the President’s Award for Best Restoration, and when you walk up to it, you can see why.

The stonework alone tells you this building was meant to outlast everyone who built it.

A tornado, a newspaper publisher and a town that fought back

In 1968, a tornado tore into the courthouse clock tower. County leaders talked about pulling it down and flattening the roof.

That’s when Norma Crawford, publisher of the Hood County News Tablet, started pushing back.

She ran a grassroots campaign to save the tower, the community rallied behind her, and the commissioners’ court agreed to repair it. That one decision set something larger in motion.

The restoration of the tower led directly to the restoration of the entire square, which is why the place looks the way it does today.

The first Texas square ever added to the National Register

On June 5, 1974, the Hood County Courthouse Historic District became the first town square in Texas listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The district covers 12 acres and takes in the courthouse, the jail, the opera house and the surrounding commercial buildings.

The nomination described it as one of the most complete 19th-century courthouse squares in the state.

Granbury had already created a local historic district in 1972 and set up a Historic Preservation Commission to protect the area, so the federal recognition came as confirmation of work already underway.

Catch a show at the 1886 Opera House

Henry Kerr built the opera house in 1886, and the top floor drew vaudeville acts, dramatic productions and musical performances for decades. The lower floor cycled through various businesses over the years.

By 1911 the opera house had closed, and eventually the roof collapsed. The Granbury Opera Association stepped in and restored it, reopening the doors in 1975.

It’s now a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, and the Granbury Theatre Company puts on productions there year-round. If something is playing while you’re in town, get a ticket.

Walk through an 1885 jail with its cells still intact

The Hood County Jail went up in 1885 just off the northeast corner of the square, and today it serves as the Hood County Museum.

Head upstairs and you’ll find the main iron cage and a room called the gallows room, both largely intact.

Downstairs, the former sheriff’s quarters hold exhibits on local history, including the story of Confederate General John Bell Hood and his Texas Brigade, the man the county was named for.

It’s a short stop, but the building itself does most of the talking.

A free beach a short walk from the square

Lake Granbury is a reservoir fed by the Brazos River, and it sits close enough to the square that you can walk there. City Beach Park is free and open to the public.

There’s a sandy beach area along the water, a splash park for kids, seasonal kayak and paddleboard rentals, and picnic pavilions. The park keeps a free life jacket loaner station on hand for swimmers.

A boardwalk stretches along the lake, and early morning, when the light is low and the water is flat, it’s worth the walk out and back.

One of the last drive-ins in Texas still running double features

The Brazos Drive-In opened on June 5, 1952, and it has been running ever since, making it the longest continually operating drive-in theater in Texas.

Fewer than 20 drive-ins still run in the state, and this one sits on its original five-acre site about a mile from the square. Local businessmen built it with local materials to pull visitors into town.

Friday and Saturday nights, it shows double features, and you tune in through FM radio. It’s the kind of place that feels like it belongs to a slower version of Texas, and it still does.

Davy Crockett’s wife is buried six miles down the road

About six miles east of Granbury in the community of Acton, a small patch of land marks the grave of Elizabeth Patton Crockett, the second wife of Davy Crockett.

She moved from Tennessee to the area in the mid-1850s to claim a Republic of Texas land grant and died on Jan. 31, 1860, at age 72. The Texas Legislature authorized money for a monument over her grave in 1913.

At 0.006 acres, Acton State Historic Site is the smallest state historic site in Texas. The Texas Historical Commission manages it, and it’s free and open daily.

Festivals, trails and live music fill the square all year

Granbury goes by the nickname Celebration Capital of Texas, and the calendar backs that up. The Harvest Moon Festival of the Arts brings more than 100 juried artists from across the country each fall.

The Fourth of July draws crowds for a parade around the square and fireworks over the lake. Seasonal outdoor concerts, art events and holiday festivals run through the rest of the year.

If you want to move your legs between events, the Moments in Time Hike and Bike Trail runs 2.17 miles through town with nine historical plaques along the way.

Giraffes and rhinos wait just down the road in Glen Rose

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center sits in nearby Glen Rose, a short drive from Granbury, spread across 1,800 acres of Texas Hill Country.

The nonprofit conservation center is home to more than 1,000 animals from 50 species, many of them endangered.

You can take a self-guided drive or join a guided tour through the preserve, and either way, you’re likely to find yourself stopped while a giraffe walks past your window or a rhino grazes 20 feet from the road.

Fossil Rim was the first facility of its kind accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Visit the Historic Granbury Square in Texas

The Historic Granbury Square sits at the intersection of Business US 377, SH 4 and SH 51 in Granbury, Texas. More than 40 shops, art galleries and locally rooted restaurants line the streets around the courthouse.

A free trolley runs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays if you want to ride instead of walk. Most of Granbury’s annual festivals happen right on the square.

Check the official website for current event schedules, shop hours and what’s playing at the opera house before you make the drive out from Fort Worth.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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