Bryan County Courthouse

The Constitutional Convention designated Durant as the temporary seat of Bryan County in 1906. The county held an election to select a permanent seat on September 9, 1908. The candidates were Blue, Bokchito, Durant, and Sterrett. Durant received 2,803 votes out of 4,450. Court was held in the Steger Building at the northwest corner of West Evergreen and North 3^rd for several years. Voters defeated a bond issue for construction of a court house and jail in 1910. Finally in November 1916, voters approved a $100,000 bond issue and a contract for $96,800 was let March 2, 1917. Jewell Hicks, a native of Arkansas who had moved to Durant in 1907, was selected as architect. Hicks served as State Architect under Governor Robert L. Williams. He designed 17 court houses, the Oklahoma State Capitol, the Governor’s Mansion, and numerous buildings at the University of Oklahoma. The Court House is in the Classical Revival Style and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the Confederate Soldier Monument in 1917.

The monument to all veterans sponsored by VFW Post 3916 was dedicated on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 1998.

A black granite monument inscribed with 159 names honoring Bryan County soldiers and sailors killed or missing in action beginning with World War I through Operation Iraqi Freedom was unveiled November 12, 2005.