Drive-By
View the Exterior at Founders Plaza
Walk Founders Plaza around the 1892 Romanesque Revival red-sandstone exterior. The building anchors the historic civic core of Dallas next to Dealey Plaza.
- Duration:
- 30 min
Museum / Historical Site
Old Red (1892 Dallas County Courthouse)
Romanesque Revival red-sandstone 1892 former Dallas County Courthouse on Founders Plaza; closed as a museum and reoccupied in 2024 by the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals — best visited as an exterior walk-around at Founders Plaza adjacent to Dealey Plaza.
100 South Houston Street, Dallas, TX 75202
Wheelchair Accessible
Research-Backed · 5 sources
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Building exterior and Founders Plaza are publicly accessible. Interior access is now restricted as a working appellate court.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Stone plaza and sidewalks; the building itself is a working court with restricted access.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1892 · Romanesque Revival Architecture · Dallas County's sixth historic courthouse · Reoccupied 2024 by Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals · Founders Plaza civic landmark
Old Red was built in 1891–1892 as the sixth Dallas County Courthouse, replacing a sequence of earlier structures, several of which had been lost to fire. The building was designed by Max A. Orlopp Jr. of the Little Rock firm Orlopp & Kusener and constructed of red sandstone in a Romanesque Revival style with four corner turrets and a central clock tower.
The courthouse served as the seat of Dallas County justice for more than a century. After Dallas County courts moved to newer facilities, the building underwent a comprehensive restoration in the early 2000s. In 2007 it reopened to the public as the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture, with exhibits spanning prehistoric artifacts through twentieth-century Dallas history, including material related to the JFK assassination.
In 2021 Dallas County announced that the museum would vacate Old Red and that the building would 'again be a hall of justice.' The Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals occupied Old Red in 2024, and the building's public museum function has ended. The exterior and surrounding Founders Plaza remain publicly accessible.
The building is documented across the Old Red Museum's website, Wikipedia, the Texas Time Travel state-tourism directory, and the explore-Dallas-history blog.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_County_Courthouse_(Texas)
- https://www.oldred.org/
- https://texastimetravel.com/directory/old-red-museum-dallas-county-history-culture/
- http://exploredallashistory.com/old-red-and-the-clock-tower/
- https://paranormaltraveler.com/1760/old-red-museum-a-haunted-landmark-in-downtown-dallas/
Unexplained noises (some debunked as structural settling)Sense of presence on the upper floorsShadow figures (ghost-tour reports)
Paranormal coverage of Old Red traces predominantly to two sources: the ghost-tour write-up at Paranormal Traveler and the broader 'haunted Dallas' lists in CultureMap and Dallas Terrors. These accounts describe unexplained noises, shadowy figures, and a sense of presence on the upper floors, with hotel-tour tradition attributing some of the activity to a former caretaker said to have been murdered in the building.
The Explore Dallas History blog, which is the most rigorous source on the building, explicitly addresses one related rumor: the noises occasionally reported around the clock tower before its restoration were attributable not to a haunting but to the walls bearing the unrestored clock tower's weight, which produced groans and pops audible inside the building. That entry should be read as a cautionary deflation of one strand of the building's haunted reputation.
The caretaker-murder narrative does not appear in the Wikipedia article and has not been independently corroborated in newspaper sources we could surface; it should be treated as ghost-tour lore. With the building now functioning as an active appellate courthouse, interior paranormal investigation is not publicly available.
This venue is classified needs-review because (a) interior access has ended with the museum closure, (b) paranormal claims rest on a thin ghost-tour source base, and (c) one specific rumor has been explicitly debunked in local-history coverage.
With the building now functioning as the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals, interior access has ended; appreciate the 1892 Romanesque Revival red-sandstone facade from Founders Plaza only. The plaza itself remains a publicly accessible Dallas civic landmark adjacent to Dealey Plaza.
Notable Entities
The caretaker (ghost-tour folklore)
Media Appearances
- Paranormal Traveler
- Explore Dallas History (debunking source)
Plan Your Visit
1 way to experienceSources & Further Reading
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Old Red (1892 Dallas County Courthouse) family-friendly?
Exterior viewing of a striking historic building. Interior access ended with the museum's closure; today the building functions as a working appellate courthouse. Overall family fit: High.
How much does it cost to visit Old Red (1892 Dallas County Courthouse)?
Building exterior and Founders Plaza are publicly accessible. Interior access is now restricted as a working appellate court. This location is free to visit.
Do I need to book in advance?
No advance booking is required, but checking availability is recommended.
Is Old Red (1892 Dallas County Courthouse) wheelchair accessible?
Yes, Old Red (1892 Dallas County Courthouse) is wheelchair accessible. Terrain: Stone plaza and sidewalks; the building itself is a working court with restricted access..