Pasco County
Courthouse
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The county’s first courthouse for Pasco County was created from parts of Hernando County in 1887. The name honors Florida’s United States Senator, Samuel Pasco. A temporary county seat was located in Dade City (originally Hatton), renamed for Major Francis Dade, whose troops had been massacred not far from here by Seminoles in 1836. A referendum was held in 1889 to select a permanent site, at which time Dade City prevailed over Gladstone (San Antonio), Pasadena, and several other locations. The county's first courthouse was built by H. W. Coleman and W. A. Ferguson, who donated space to the county until a permanent structure could be erected. In 1909 James Lee and H. C. Griffin constructed a frame building at a cost of $7,000.      This was replaced in 1909 by the structure depicted here, which was designed by famous courthouse architect, Edward Columbus Hosford of Eastman, Georgia. (Mr. Hosford designed many other county courthouses for Florida, Georgia and Texas.) The courthouse was built by Mutual Construction Company of Louisville, Kentucky. The Pasco County Commission minutes reflect that it was accepted for use by the county on January 3, 1910 after they had previously refused acceptance on December 16, 1909 "on grounds, not fully completed."   The commission plans to honor the architect by placing a historic marker on the grounds of the courthouse.  It was long thought that Artemus Roberts was the architect, but in fact he was the Superintendent of construction. Thanks to Mr. Eddie Herrmann, member of the Pasco County Historical Committee, for providing this updated information about this lovely courthouse!

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