It was the fifth seat of government in Bexar County, the first four having been ruled by a succession of governments and political entities including Spain, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, The Confederate States of America and the United States.
Each of the four predecessor buildings were located within two blocks of the existing historic courthouse, in the heart of downtown San Antonio.
Since 1897, the Courthouse has had four major additions. The first occurred in 1914 and the second was an extensive remodeling and expansion in 1927. Those additions were sufficient to meet the County's space needs until 1963 when an additional 9,000 square feet were added. Finally, the addition built in 1972 added almost 39,000 square feet at the southwest corner of the building.
Presently, the total square footage of the Bexar County Courthouse is approximately 300,000.
Gordon was a brillant architect of courthouses throughout the United States. Gordon's specialty was constructing public buildings mainly in the Romanesque Revival style. He designed 72 courthouses and hundreds of other notable public buildings, including the Arizona State Capitol, during his lifetime.
Many believe the Bexar County Courthouse to be an especially magnificent county courthouse, due in part to Gordon's personal affinity of San Antonio. He moved to Bexar County as a child with his mother and his father, a civil engineer. As a young San Antonian architect his first major design job was to supervise the construction of the San Antonio Federal Courthouse and Postoffice in 1869.
Following a series of disastrous floods, including one in 1921 that killed 50 people, city officials built Olmos Dam and removed several meanders from the river downtown. Plans called for redirecting the flow of the biggest bend in the river and paving it over; the San Antonio Conservation Society, however, recognized the river's potential and had been working to save it.
In 1929, Hugman provided them “The Shops of Aragon and Romula,” a flood-prevention proposal that not only allowed for commercial development, but maintained the natural beauty of the river and its flora.
For the next six years, armed with Hugman's seductive drawings of quaint, winding streets filled with shops and pedestrian activity, they lobbied city officials and property owners along the river. Funding did not come until 1938, however, when Congressman Maury Maverick secured partial assistance from the WPA.
In a 1978 speech Hugman recalled how a bond election for the remaining funds was rigged by the Plaza Hotel manager (and future mayor) John White and compliant city officials to exclude property owners opposed to the project and to include the residents of the hotel who “owned as much as a watch.”