Willis’s robust Greek Revival design makes this one of Mississippi’s most outstanding antebellum courthouses, and the building shares many features with his contemporary Jackson City Hall (JM31). Monumental tetrastyle Greek Doric porticos dominate the front and rear—here on shallow bases absent on the Jackson building—while the sides feature distyle-in-antis Doric porticos. Plain pilasters on all sides support a full Doric entablature. A prominent dome with a cupola sits on a tall glazed drum with Doric pilasters, a twin to the dome removed in 1876 from Jackson City Hall. In 1925, after local citizens fought to preserve the courthouse and its dome, Lindsley layered a protective brick veneer over the original stuccoed walls and strengthened the dome. The renovation also included replacement of the twelve-over-twelve second-floor windows with steel casements and new exterior doors with leaded glass transoms.
The tree-shaded courthouse grounds, crossed by concrete walks, are surrounded by an original wrought- and cast-iron fence manufactured by T. F. Baker of Cincinnati. In 1995, the county moved its court to a new building two blocks north at 128 W. North Street.