Things to Do in Waxahachie, Texas

The Ellis County Courthouse is Waxahachie's crown jewel — an 1890s Richardsonian Romanesque masterpiece in pink granite and sandstone, with arches, rounded towers, and a grand clock tower. It's one of the most photographed courthouses in Texas and the centerpiece of the historic square.

Around it, downtown Waxahachie is famous for its Victorian 'gingerbread' homes and restored storefronts, so ornate and well-preserved that films have used the town as a backdrop for decades. Walking the square and the surrounding historic neighborhoods is the classic Waxahachie outing.

Each spring, the Scarborough Renaissance Festival transforms a site outside town into 16th-century England for a run of weekends in April and May. It packs in more than 200 daily performances across 25-plus stages, full-combat jousting, birds-of-prey exhibitions, a Mermaid Lagoon, and 200 artisan shops with craft demonstrations.

Running for more than four decades, it's one of the biggest Renaissance festivals in Texas and a major regional draw, pulling visitors from all over the state to Waxahachie.

For a quieter visit, Getzendaner Memorial Park is a shaded historic park with walking trails and picnic areas, home to the early-1900s Chautauqua Auditorium — an open-air building from the era when traveling Chautauqua assemblies brought lectures and music to towns like Waxahachie. It still hosts events today.

The park and its auditorium are a window into the town's turn-of-the-century heyday, and an easy stop to pair with a walk around the historic downtown.

Waxahachie sits close to lakes and to its Ellis County neighbors: Lake Waxahachie and Bardwell Lake are short drives for fishing and boating, and Ennis, with its bluebonnet trails and Czech heritage, is just to the east.

And because Waxahachie is about forty minutes south of Dallas on I-35E, the full range of the metro is an easy drive — but the courthouse, the festival, and the historic downtown fill a day on their own.