The first Mills County Courthouse was built in 1890 but burned in 1912 under suspicious circumstances, according to the Texas Historical Commission.
The current Mills County Courthouse was built in 1912-13 for $69,000 in a Classical Revival Style as designed by Henry Phelps. Back in 2010-11, the temple of justice was restored to a selected time period of 1912-1920 in a $5.2 million project that included both interior and exterior preservation and reconstruction.
Interestingly, murals found in a men’s room in the basement were conserved, and the room was transitioned to public use to promote viewing of the historic advertisements.
The exterior grounds, which had been highly renovated during the 1980s to include ornamental trees, shrubs, and brick walls, were restored to their more simple beginnings, which once again allowed the courthouse to be viewed from the street. Mills County rededicated its newly restored courthouse in August 2011.
Mills County was created and organized in 1887 from parts of Brown, Comanche, Hamilton, and Lampasas counties and named in honor of John T. Mills, a district judge during the days of the Republic of Texas. The county seat of Goldthwaite refers to an official of the railroad that was built through the area in 1885.
Mills County is home to the Regency Suspension Bridge, one of the few suspension bridges still in service in Texas. The bridge is located about halfway between Brownwood and San Saba in western Mills County near the San Saba County boundary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_County,_Texas#/media/File:Regency_Suspension_Bridge_Deck.jpg
The bridge was put in place following a flood along the river in 1938. Spanning the Regency Bridge is a cable suspension bridge supported by permanent abutment towers set upon concrete foundations in the banks of the river. The construction of the bridge in 1939 was financed by Mills and San Saba counties, with Mills paying $5,000 and San Saba $10,000. The National Register description includes the following: “It became the pride of the locality, and youths gathered there in the 1940s to picnic, dance, and sing.”
Each year the county attracts a large number of resident and non-resident Texas hunters in search of deer, quail, dove, and turkey. Some of these same game-lovers participate in the Annual Goldthwaite State Championship BBQ & Goat Cook-Off the third week of April.
Visitors also frequent the courthouse square during wintertime, as the Mills County Courthouse is located on the Christmas Tour of Lights and is the focal point for the Annual Parade of Lights the first Saturday in December.