Three successive county courthouses were located off the public square. The first of these, a one-room log building, was built in 1847. It was replaced by a permanent stone building in 1850. This in turn was supplanted by a brick structure in 1861–1862. The present and fourth courthouse was sited upon the square that Andreas had mentioned in 1875. This Romanesque Revival building is sheathed in hard Beria stone and it is dominated by a 137-foot-high entrance tower. The upper portion of the tower consists of a high two-story octagonal lantern with finials projecting above each corner of the parapet. A four-sided spire with a steep roof crowns the tower. The designers of the building, the Des Moines firm of Foster and Liebbe, provided the usual balanced composition of slightly projecting pavilions on each side of the tower. The lateral aspect of each of these pavilions is in turn broken by a slightly projecting gable bay. While there are a few trees on the public square today, it bears little resemblance to the forested park commented on by Andreas.