Texarkana, Texas, to dedicate state historic landmark marker at City Hall
Texarkana, Texas, will dedicate a state historical marker at City Hall at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, recognizing the 101-year-old building at 220 Texas Blvd. as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
The short ceremony will be held on the front steps of City Hall, right before the City Council’s regular 6 p.m. meeting, the city said in a news release. The public is invited.
The Texas Historical Commission gave City Hall the landmark designation in 2025. The city calls it the highest honor the state can give a historic structure.
The commission describes landmarks as “properties judged to be historically and architecturally significant.” Buildings become eligible at 50 years old and are expected to look the way they did during the period that made them significant. The designation “comes with a measure of protection under state law,” and buying and displaying the marker is a required part of it, according to the commission. More than 3,800 landmark markers stand across Texas.
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A century at Texas Boulevard and Third Street
The dedication comes three days before the 101st anniversary of City Hall’s grand opening on Nov. 12, 1925. That day included a parade, a banquet and a community celebration, the city said.
Voters approved $200,000 in bonds for a new municipal building in August 1923, 881 to 149, according to a 1981 Historic American Buildings Survey record of the building kept by the Library of Congress. Murch Brothers Construction Co. won the general contract in July 1924 with a low bid of $149,050, the record shows.
The four-story Neoclassical Revival building was designed by C. H. Page & Brother of Austin and Witt, Seibert & Halsey of Texarkana. The local firm later designed the Arkansas side’s Municipal Building on Walnut Street, finished in 1930 and now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The City Council held its first meeting in the new building on Sept. 1, 1925. It has been the center of city government ever since.
The city celebrated the building’s 100th anniversary last November. Ahead of the centennial, a special committee oversaw a professional deep cleaning of the century-old floors, a softwash of the exterior, all-new windows and improvements to the heating and air system.
The new marker “ensures that this legacy will be recognized and preserved for future generations,” the city said.
If you go
- What: Recorded Texas Historic Landmark marker dedication
- When: 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9
- Where: Front steps of Texarkana, Texas, City Hall, 220 Texas Blvd.
- Also: The City Council meets at 6 p.m., immediately after the dedication.