The 1897 Romanesque courthouse famous for its 21 carved stone faces — the subject of a contested love legend — and a 1920 prisoner shootout whose bullet hole is still visible inside.
101 W Main St, Waxahachie, TX 75165
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Exterior and grounds are free and publicly accessible. Interior access varies by county business hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic downtown building; paved exterior walkways around courthouse square
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1897 · National Register of Historic Places · Richardsonian Romanesque Revival architecture · James Riely Gordon design · Ellis County seat since 1897 · Texas Historical Commission marker
The Ellis County Courthouse replaced a succession of earlier county seats on the same Waxahachie square, with construction beginning in 1893 and formal acceptance by the county in 1897. The final cost was approximately $130,000, plus architect's fees. James Riely Gordon, a Virginia-born architect practicing in San Antonio, designed the building in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style — characterized by round-arch openings, heavy masonry, and carved stone ornament. The Fort Worth firm Messer, Sanguinet and Messer served as on-site architects and supervisors.
The most discussed feature of the building is its 21 carved stone faces, executed by Harry Herley through the Dallas stonecutting firm of Theodore Beilharz. Local tradition holds that Herley fell in love with Mabel Frame, the daughter of his boarding-house proprietor, and depicted her face above one of the courthouse entrances. According to the legend, as his affection went unreturned, his subsequent carvings depicted her likeness with increasingly demonic features. County historical materials note, however, that Herley's firm carved the faces in Dallas and shipped them to Waxahachie by rail, making a personal connection to Mabel Frame historically implausible. Architectural historians observe that foliate and grotesque faces were standard decorative vocabulary on Romanesque revival buildings of the period.
The building has a documented history of courthouse violence. In 1920 a prisoner at the county jail managed to obtain a pistol from his girlfriend. A shooting on the first floor killed the prisoner and wounded a deputy; the bullet hole is still visible in what was then the county sheriff's office. The courthouse underwent a major restoration in 2004 using the building's original blueprints. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (reference 75001971).
Sources
The Ellis County Courthouse is the anchor stop on the Waxahachie Haunted History Tour for two converging reasons: its documented violent history and its strange carved faces, which have fascinated visitors for over a century.
The most frequently cited paranormal report is a persistent cold spot near the first-floor room that still bears the bullet hole from the 1920 jail shootout. Guides and visitors describe a sudden drop in temperature around the doorway, along with an occasional sense of being followed in the first-floor corridor.
Outside, the 21 stone faces on the porch capitals draw a different kind of attention. The popular Mabel Frame story — that a lovesick stone carver depicted a local woman in progressively monstrous form — circulates widely on tour circuits and in travel writing despite the historical record suggesting it is a twentieth-century folk embellishment. Several of the carved faces do show progression from naturalistic to exaggerated features, and the visual effect is striking regardless of the legend's accuracy.
More broadly, visitors on the evening ghost tours report whispers and cold spots at various points around the perimeter, consistent with the building's history as the site of trials, executions, and civil disputes spanning more than a century.
Notable Entities
Walk the grounds and examine the 21 carved stone faces on the exterior, including the Mabel Frame faces in the porch capitals. The bullet hole from the 1920 shootout is visible on the first floor inside during business hours.
The Ellis County Courthouse is the starting point and a primary stop on the Saturday-evening Waxahachie Haunted History Tour. Tours run approximately 2 hours, cover 0.68 miles of downtown, and include the courthouse legend, the Rogers Hotel, and other sites. Adults $25, students 15 and under $15.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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