Bexar County Court House

As a tourist, this building along with it’s fountain is eye catching from right across the Historical Main Plaza. It stands to be the Bexar Courthouse of the fourth largest County in Texas and the 19^th largest County nationally. The building was built right before the 20^th century and designed in a Romanesque Revival Style.

Park in garage at 211 S. Flores as jury summons informs you. The garage will probably fill up, so get there early if you can. Oh and pay attention to left turns… those are for special access only on most if not all parking levels.
Take diagonal crosswalk across street and get in line with others to go through security/​metal detector. If you forgot a bottle opener or something potentially weapon-​y in your bag/​wallet, you’ll have to run it back to your car if you don’t wanna give it up.
The main juror room is downstairs. this is where you’ll turn in the questionnaire on the bottom half of your jury summons, get your parking ticket validated, and get your marching orders. Everyone meets in the main room to get briefed. If you want to be excused or have your service postponed for a vacation or something, they’ll direct you where to go.
There’s a machine where you can pay your parking ticket (after validation) so you can get out of the garage faster when you’re released for the day.
We were split into groups: Your name will be called and you’ll be given a number and asked to stay in that order. Then you’ll be moved somewhere where you’ll stand around clogging hallways and doorways while waiting for further instruction.
I loved my jury duty experience: our judge gave us a briefing regarding how the law works — what we’d be ask to uphold as jurors if selected — that, and the infinitely interesting complete Democracy of the whole experience: people from all walks are called to serve or are milling about the courthouse. I was a little sad not to have been selected to continue my exploration of our legal system in real life (as a juror instead of a defendant — the way I’d much prefer…).
One more tip: when leaving the garage after dismissal, I believe the right lane must turn right… I ended up taking a little scenic detour thru downtown as a result.

First time ever on a jury and it’s been an amazing experience! I am super grateful & am learning a lot. In terms of the building I am in, it’s old, but they do a good job of maintaining it. Jurors seats are comfy:)

Tips for Jury Duty:
1. Park at their garage…211 S Flores. Bring your parking ticket because they validate and you’ll end up paying $ 2 only. But be early, by 7:35…I parked on the roof, there were so many people.
2. Cross walk works… once you cross, you can use the first entrance you see at the front if the building. No one tells you this so many of us were lost.
3. You will have to go through metal detectors here. Do what they say. They are helpful.
4. Walk straight through the building, you’ll walk through some doors that take you outside again and keep walking to next building. Again, no one told us this so I asked the metal detector guys.
5. You’ll walk down some stairs… and you are there.
6. They say they have wifi but I couldn’t get it to work, plus texting did not work either, probably because you are in a basement plus courthouse.
7. At the parking garage, there’s a machine next to the elevator where you can pay and then just drive through lane 4… if you are worried about the traffic getting out of the garage.
It was a Monday… so I’d say 900 people were there… standing room only.
But we made it through the day!
Good luck.

We stopped by the give an answer to the civil department and the girl at the counter was very rude to us. We just asked a simply question and got back a bad-​mannered answer.

We’ve got a beautiful, historic courthouse here in Bexar County! This building shows off some wonderful Romanesque style built in red Texas granite with some limestone.
This place is amazing. They don’t build ‘em like this anymore. Once you get past the inconvenience of the security upon entering the building, it turns into a hustling, bustling beehive of activity. I have served on juries here, and I do have to admit, it is fun to people watch down here, or listen in on some case going on. If you’ve been hanging out in Main Square and are in need of some air conditioning, this is a welcome respite from the heat.
The parking here is easy, right caddycorner across the street. It’s fun that regular jaywalking rules don’t apply, and you can go running diagonally through the intersection! Try it!
The building is a bit on the old side, but it’s really neat with how it’s laid out, and the architectural details are really nice. It was built in 1896, and it kind of shows it.
The exterior has two towers, one of which is seven stories tall, capped with a bee-​hive looking spire. The architect was James Riely Gordon, who built a whole bunch of courthouses across Texas.
I try not to come down here often. If you’re seated in the defendant’s chair in this building, I’d give it one star.

What can I say? Went here for emotional support for an individual of whom I will respect their privacy and not mention anything of. As my fabulous former SA Unilocal CM Gloria said, it’s a great place to people watch. So many different people, with… so many different problems.
Not really a place I wanted to stay longer than I had to. It was truly a get in, and get out asap situation. I failed to notice any of the pretty architecture mentioned in other reviews. Wish the courthouse had a better parking system. Still on the cheap side, but still peeved I had to fork over $ 4 to a rude parking attendant.
I might go back to visit the area and take pictures of the historical building!

Well now, they already have a bad rap for making people do things they don’t want to do, but that’s there job. Can’t knock them for that, right? So, I had jury duty, right…
The building is pretty dated but they have made some restorations which preserve the original identity of the courthouse.
The staff is considerably nicer than you would assume, answered all questions politely. The main jurors room is pretty big, but they do have wifi and eReaders you can borrow till you get called into a courtroom. High tech!
The main judge, I’m assuming, welcomed us cordially (about 400 of us), made some jokes, complimented the Spurs victory the night prior and thanked us for our service.
So, while you wait in this populated room you are looking to hear your name be called to go to a courtroom, so that you may be surveyed to be a juror. Then the rest is all how you handle it.
Cool learning experience. Don’t think I’d do it again if I don’t have to.
Tips: get parking in the county parking garage, like everyone else said, can’t beat $ 2.

If you happen to win the lottery of serving the county through jury duty, then here are a few tips to help you through the process. Try to park in the Bexar County Parking Garage off of Flores. It is the only garage that offers validated parking of $ 2 for the day. Anywhere else you are on your own. I recommend arriving early, at 7:30 AM it was already filling up. The garage is just across the street from the courthouse, and the city put in an awesome diagonal crosswalk so you only have to cross once.
Construction seems to be finished, and the entrance is through the Cadena Reeves justice center. There is a metal detector, but it moves quickly. Walk past the elevators and go through the doors to the outside. Head down the outdoor stairs into the basement and there resides the glorious jury holding tank. Make sure the bottom portion of the jury summons paperwork is filled out, otherwise you will be scrambling with tons of other people trying to fill out the document and get inside. They will then hand you a laminated description of what it entails to be a juror and a badge to wear for the day.
Now, I was surprised to see that the SA Library has a set up inside of the jury holding tank. It’s a bibliotech and they even have free e-​readers to rent in case you forgot to bring something to read. They also offer free wifi, and I never had problems with it dropping. There are plugs all over the space to charge computers/​cell phones. The issue for me was cell service. Since it is a basement I was on roaming the whole time. I had to go out into the courtyard to be able to text.
In between waiting and selection times, there are two TV rooms, a cafeteria and the aforementioned courtyard. In any of these spaces they have speakers where they will announce if you have to go back into the holding tank. The cafeteria has a hot kitchen with breakfast in the AM and sandwich type stuff in the PM. There are tons of drink cases and plenty of coffee selections as well. They take debit cards, but I think there is a minimum charge so it’s a lot easier to have cash. I also saw employees of the courthouse microwaving their lunches, so that is an option as well. There is an SACU ATM close to the doors that go out to the courtyard, but I didn’t check to see what the rate was.
The first day of jury duty pays a fabulous $ 6, which can be donated to Child Welfare services. There are forms right at the front where you can opt for the $$ to go to this cause. Also, do NOT forget to have your parking garage ticket validated. If not the garage charges $ 10 instead of $ 2.

What Bexar County Court House lacks in inexpensive parking and directional signage, it certainly makes up for in excellent people watching.
We had a terrible time trying to find the marriage license place (we walked aimlessly, even after getting directions from employees), but once we did, it was a quick and painless process (although not necessarily friendly.)
My suggestion? Bring your best «don’t fuck with me» face and get in and out as quick as you can.

Love San Antonio; DREAD THIS PLACE!
I recently filed for an assumed name license online, printed the application and mailed it in. I quickly found out how good these guys are at coming up with fees — seriously the Bexar County Court House should consider starting an airline!
They make you pay for a notary, they make you pay a filing fee and the filing fee DOES NOT include a copy of your business license! WTF. On top of that if you ever try to call this place, have a good HOUR set aside to be transferred around, wait on hold and hear about every phone extension for every part of the City of San Antonio’s departments.
The first lady I spoke with pretended she couldn’t hear me and hung up on me. So I was real primed and ready for the 2^nd person I talked to. This is something that could be avoided if they would just be clearer online about the fact that your business registration fee does not include a copy of your actual business certificate. Instead, it mentions that nowhere and talks about how much «additional copies» are, which seems to imply that it comes with at least one?
Your phone system needs a makeover and your staff needs to be more knowledgeable; God forbid you ask a dumb question like «what all do you need for me to obtain a copy of my business certificate?» and they reply «do you mind if I place you on hold?» (sure it’s only the sixth time what’s one more right?)

Look, there has to be a better way to accomplish jury duty than locking 500 people a day into a gigantic room and playing «wait here» for 8 hours. We have technology now. Do we really need to waste three-​quarters of a million dollars in lost productivity to pick a DUI jury?
On the upside, at least there is a cafeteria and wifi. The wifi is spotty and so is the food.
Oh, make sure that you bring your parking receipt to get it validated, but only on the first day of service. After that, you are on your own. They will pay you $ 36 a day after the first day, but take $ 10 of it back for parking.

The building was completed in 1897 and is built from Texas red sandstone and granite. The Romanesque Revival style architecture offers many photo opportunities.
Bexar County Courthouse Historic Designations
*National Register of Historic Places
*National Register of Historic Districts
*Recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey
*Texas Historic Landmark
*Texas State Archaeological Site
*Texas State Archaeological Landmark Site
*Texas Historical Commission Grant Covenant
*National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of «Eleven Most Endangered» Historic Buildings; 1998
*City of San Antonio Main Plaza Historic District
*City of San Antonio Military Plaza Historic Districts
*City of San Antonio Historic Exceptional Landmark